5 priorities define Globe and Mail’s new educational subscription programme
Product and Tech Blog | 22 September 2020
Students attend university for myriad reasons but paramount is training for a future career. To succeed in a professional environment, today’s students need to be not only proficient in technical skills, but able to apply knowledge, judge situations, and be curious about the world around them.
The Globe and Mail recently launched Globe Campus, an educational subscription programme geared toward the Canadian post-secondary market. I spoke to Barbara March, The Globe and Mail’s educational programme manager, about what makes for a successful subscription offering.
• Easy content access. While libraries are central to the university experience, students often have to log in to databases or have limited access to the available content or tools offered by publishers. We made sure faculty and students have access to the full Globe and Mail experience, including our investment tools and mobile app.
Globe content can be accessed at any time for research or casual reading, and it is available via audio in English, French, and Mandarin. Regular e-mail newsletters also keep students abreast of trending topics. This ease of access is necessary to support a student’s mobile-first lifestyle.
• Unique content. Publishers considering an educational subscriber programme need to understand what they can offer institutions. Our primary market is Canadian post-secondary schools, which is appropriate for our premium content offering and our Canadian perspective. Our strengths in business, politics, and opinion are good matches for the academic topics business and management students delve into.
• Faculty support. Faculty can find content relevant to the Canadian experience and environment to incorporate into their classroom experience. They can also easily create reading lists to share online with their classes or for in-class discussions. Students can test their knowledge of key concepts with interactive group activities and in-class competitions
• Tools. Students are inundated with theory during their school years but the true test is how well they are able to apply their knowledge. Media companies that offer tools that promote the real-life application of what students are learning can give an education subscription programme an advantage.
For students in business or management schools, Globe online tools including Stock Screener, Watchlist, and Portfolio can give insight into how their academic studies relate to the stock and investment markets where many hope to work.
• Follow-up offers. Our goal is to create habits for life. We follow-up with our student subscribers with an exclusive subscriber deal for the year after graduation.
Universities strive to provide students with quality content and an enhanced experience. Keeping this in mind when designing an educational subscription programme resulted in a more attractive product for the schools while delivering on The Globe and Mail’s goal of connecting with emerging leaders.