Saturday, October 12, 2013

Magazines Experiment With New Kinds of Paywalls

Mashable reporting:
A la carte paywalls have been in vogue with magazine publishers lately.
In July, Esquire put a $1.99 paywall around a nearly 10,000-word investigative story, "The Prophet" by Luke Dittrich. In a note about the paywall, David Granger, Esquire's editor in chief (pictured above), explained that the story took months to produce — and that such journalism doesn't come cheap.
Sports Illustrated also began testing a new variety of paywall this summer, but one that didn't ask readers to pay directly. Instead, it granted online readers access to certain print stories — ones typically not available to non-subscribers until an issue is off the newsstand, like cover stories — in exchange for watching a video ad of their choice. The experiment has been modest so far — about five to six stories have been behind the video paywall to date, a spokesperson for SI says.
In a third experiment, The Atlantic began packaging a selection of free online articles in an ad-free weekly magazine, available for $1.99 in iTunes. Of the decision to charge, editor in chief James Bennet writes that the magazine is exploring paid content options outside of advertising. "This is, for us, another experiment in putting to use any new means available to create and support the journalism of ideas that distinguishes The Atlantic," he explains.
And how are these paywall experiments faring? Granger tells Mashable "The Prophet" sold several thousands copies, but that it was "probably a wash, revenue-wise." Still, he hasn't ruled out another go. Esquire is set to launch a redesign of its site next year and is "working on how we might integrate some kind of paywall into it," Granger says, adding that there are no definite plans for a paywall yet.
mashable.com/2013/10/11/magazines-paywalls-esquire-sports-illustrated-atlantic/?utm_cid=mash-prod-email-topstories&utm_emailalert=daily&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily

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