Hi there -- our newsroom has been frustrated for awhile with the logic in the subscription module that requires users to register for the newspaper's website before buying a subscription. It's creating a bit of friction when e.g. we want to give out a complimentary subscription to an advertiser or other user, and is also a difficult workflow for some of our users if they don't get a confirmation email for registration. 

I understand the logic of registration being different from subscription status; and I also understand the internal logic of someone needing a registration before they buy a subscription. However, I'm wondering if the subscription page could be streamlined, either to allow people to register while buying a subscription or to create a user registration record as part of a new subscription (that is, prompt for a username when purchasing a subscription). 

Thoughts on that? 

Hi all, 

We currently sell print and digital subscriptions online, and are considering doing print only, but there doesn't seem to be a way inside the Blox circulation system to limit print subscription offers by zip code (like most papers, we only deliver to a certain amount of zip codes and have mail subscriptions outside our circulation area). Our older online circulation system limited the print offer by zip code. 

Has anyone run into this, and if so, is there a solution for it? 

thanks, Rob 

Say a reporter is completing his/her story. They've added the photos, gallery and any other assets. Next they move over to "Notifier" and create a tweet and FB message and hit "Save and Send." By default, since the story isn't "live" on the website yet, it goes into "draft" mode. Next, they'll promote the story for the editor to read. He/she reads it and promotes it to the web. Shouldn't the tweet and FB post go live at that time? 

We've received many, many complaints that ads block out text in the phone app. We've contacted customer service but nothing was done. This is a real issue for our phone users.

We are thinking about adding a podcast at our paper, and I've been looking at the BLOX documentation about setting up a /search/ url to create a home for the podcast feed - but I'm not quite able to visualize how this is supposed to work. It would be nice to see another BLOX site that hosts podcasts to see how it looks and to learn how it was configured. I'd like to have both an iTunes friendly RSS feed, as well as a way to have an asset page for each episode with show notes and a link to the audio. The answer "we have a podcast, but don't host it with BLOX" would also be an interesting.

We are wondering if anyone has ever done anything with integrating LiveIntent (https://support.liveintent.com/hc/en-us/articles/217205726) into newsletters.

If anyone is using this, we love to find out how the integration went and what you think of LiveIntent.

Dear Town News, currently we have the option of showing how many comments an article receives, would it be possible to show how many times an article has been viewed? We have the block that shows most popular, might be a nice option to show how many people read a story. Many thanks

To make compiling analytics on pushes easier, would be so helpful to be able to prepare a downloadable report of all pushes sent to a particular channel, with options on what columns to include in the report. 

This seems like a no-brainer, but currently pre-roll ads in video assets only play when the video is viewed in the video asset itself. When a video is embedded in a story, such as a long-form article asset, the pre-roll ad does not play. Example can be found here:

Pre-roll ad plays in video asset: https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/multimedia/jhn_g_videos/video_a0761ba8-46ca-54a1-97e9-6285ea337178.html

Pre-roll ad does not display when video is embedded in a story: https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/valley/feature/article_1561a181-d971-50c0-8ce4-3c2833c348af.html

The value of video assets to potential advertisers is obviously diminished when we cannot show their ad before videos that are embedded in stories. This is an update that needs to be addressed ASAP.

PS — While you're at it, please allow a video asset's Description and Byline fields to display with video assets when embedded in article assets, similar to how they display when image assets are embedded into articles.

Moving to Bootstrap in Flex has been great! 

However, as layout options are increasing, and with new versions of Bootstrap, is there a plan to keep things up-to-date?

It's definitely not urgent now, but wanted to see if there was a plan in order to prevent things getting as stale as "Zen" got by the time Flex rolled around.

At our May customer webinar, Doug Green, product manager for TownNews, will introduce BLOX Offers and show how you can launch a turnkey digital coupon site that drives engagement and thrills advertisers.

Topics will include:

• An in-depth overview of BLOX Offers
• The benefits of coupons in the digital age
• Tips you can use to launch a successful coupon site
• . . . and much more!

Ready to get started? Join us on May 2nd at 10:30 AM CDT.

We've got piano.io pitching our publisher:

a SaaS platform helping media companies convert anonymous web and APP visitors into registered subscribers, combat ad blockers, as well as customize newsletters and user site experience according to their content affinities. Some of our clients include: Chicago Sun-Times, Hearst, Bloomberg, Gatehouse Media, The Economist, and Business Insider.

Anybody using this or something similar with Town News? 

It gets a little confusing at times 😀