We’ve been following Salon‘s mixed approach with interest. Adam Penenberg does some updating on how the choice between the $35 subscription and watching an ad for access works for the online magazine he describes as “tiny, never-say-die Salon. (I like the option: I renewed my subscription last summer after going the ad pass route for a while.) Some numbers: about 85,000 paid subscribers, 175,000 and 200,000 daily Site Pass visitors, clickthroughs range between 5 percent to 20 percent for a movie release, 85 percent completion rate for viewing. Site Pass brought in more than half of the $6.6 million total revenue last year.
The Economist is trying it, too; a web-only sub is $89. Dana Jones, founder of Ultramercial, has created ads for both: “It’s an explicit arrangement between the advertiser and the viewer and is the purest form of advertising.”
Penenberg says the practice runs the risk of blocking content off from the blogosphere: “every day, Salon’s footsteps in cyberspace become fainter and fainter.” I don’t get that sense from checking Google and Technorati but what really matters, though, is whether Salon can serve its target readers/subscribers and make a profit. The pass along rate isn’t what makes a magazine valuable.
Related: Salon Learns Subscription Ropes
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
["wijax_54465b94948911ec45d161d66e2da718","wijax_813f843645df6cbab809033058159ae0"]
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2005\/05\/26\/salons-hybrid-mix-works\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_63869c4e3dc84b69dad26d1f7593d729","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2005\/05\/26\/salons-hybrid-mix-works\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_63869c4e3dc84b69dad26d1f7593d729","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}
Comments have been disabled for this post