Investor's Business Daily’s Digital Strategy Fuels Record Growth at 33-Year-Old Financial Media Company

In less than a year, IBD’s B2C revenue per subscriber is up nearly 25%

Subscriptions now account for over 75% of total revenues with majority coming from digital

Renewed focus has driven incremental 8-figure revenue streams across digital products

LOS ANGELES, April 26, 2017 -- Investor’s Business Daily (IBD), a leading financial news and research organization, today announced that the organization has hit a number of significant milestones since migrating to its digital-first strategy just one year ago. Notably, IBD is on track for its most profitable year since the 2008 financial crisis and one of the best overall in its 33-year-old history. It has increased revenue per B2C subscriber by 25 percent and is seeing incremental eight-figure revenue streams from premium digital products such as SwingTrader and MarketSmith.

Based on the strength of its comprehensive suite of tools, data and analysis for investors, IBD has not needed to discount subscriptions to lure subscribers, as other media companies have been prone to do. Instead, IBD has maintained a laser focus on the needs of its specific audience -- highly engaged individual and professional investors. Additionally, the number of unique visitors to Investors.com has increased by over 200 percent, averaging 4 - 5 million unique visitors per month over the past year with significant growth across mobile.

IBD Weekly also continues to perform well, despite the tectonic industry shifts away from printed media and into digital. The weekly print edition is available at three times as many retail locations now vs. this point last year, and more than 90 percent of subscribers report reading three or more IBD Weekly issues per month, even as they access Investors.com or IBD’s apps multiple times daily.

The key to IBD’s success has been its reliance on data. The company was built on data analysis, and over the past year, it has applied its unique data-driven approach to determine the products and services its subscribers truly want, instead of introducing more advertising-only supported products, or creating subscriber products that fall short of helping investors meet their financial goals. Empowered by this information and a lean, focused organizational structure, IBD has been able to respond quickly, introducing tailored offerings that attract active, paying subscribers with little increase in operating costs. For example:

• Over the past year, IBD created a SwingTrader mobile app in response to the product’s online popularity as well as introduced a new IBD mobile app. Subscribers consistently access both apps multiple times a day, in addition to IBD’s Leaderboard product.
• IBD also acquired Marketsmith -- a preeminent digital investing platform for individual investors and professionals. Since the acquisition, IBD has increased subscribers by 15% to the $1500 product.
• IBD also understood the way subscribers wanted to interact. Over the past 12 months, IBD has hosted more than 50 investing summits and webcasts, both in person and virtually. Each webcast typically draws between 5-8,000 registrations, yielding another profitable revenue stream for IBD while staying true to its audience by delivering unbiased and actionable content.

“When we accelerated our transformation to digital last year, it was essential that we maintained our roots as an objective, data-driven company that always puts investors’ needs first,” said Jerry Ferrara, President of IBD. “This stance has served us well as other media companies and publishers find themselves held hostage to ad-supported only revenue models that are now dominated by Google and Facebook. Worse yet, some publishers have fallen victim to fake news by accepting unverified contributed articles to fill in content holes or add to their news volume. Our subscribers recognize and appreciate the unique value IBD provides, while this value translates well for our advertising, licensing and B2B partners.”

Subscribers clearly find value in the ability to learn from IBD’s investor toolkit. Ninety-six percent of IBD’s subscribers report making changes to their investment strategies or seeking additional information after engaging with IBD content. Additionally, more than two out of three users indicated that they trust and rely on IBD because all of IBD’s content is based on unbiased, referenceable data.

To learn more about all that IBD has to offer investors and how it is different than other financial media companies, please visit www.Investors.com. 

ABOUT INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY (IBD) 
Investor’s Business Daily is a leading financial news and research organization recognized for providing stock screens, comparative performance ratings, and unique commentary helping investors zero in on top performing growth stocks. IBD provides the buy rules and sell rules to properly make trading decisions that will minimize your risk and maximize your potential profit. IBD offers individual and professional investors a comprehensive lineup of print and online products, all based on a powerful investing system that has dramatically outperformed the S&P 500.

IBD’s website, Investors.com, offers tools, analysis and research for investors of all levels: IBD University learning center, IBD TV market videos and the IBD Stock Checkup®.  IBD also hosts popular investment workshops and provides Home Study programs based on the top-performing growth strategy, CAN SLIM.  IBD was founded April 9, 1984 by William J. O'Neil, who also originated CAN SLIM.

© 2017 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.  All rights reserved. Investor's Business Daily, IBD, CAN SLIM and their corresponding logos are registered trademarks of Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

For Editorial Contact:
Marisa Lam
GMK Communications for IBD
[email protected]
(650) 544-3350