Variety, an entertainment trade publication, has followed last
week’s move by news site Salon.com to introduce subscription
charges for users of its on-line edition. Unlike Salon.com, it did
not blame the recent downturn in the internet ad market.
Salon.com last week offered its 2.7 million monthly visitors an
“ad-free” version of its service and additional content in exchange
for subscription fees of $30 per year. Non-paying users can
continue to access the site but they will be exposed to larger
adverts, taking up the centre of each page. According to recent
research by EyeTracking.com, users spend more time with this new
type of ad, already used by news network CNet.com, and brand recall
was as much as three times higher than for conventional
banners.
Variety.com is now charging users an annual fee of $59 for
access to all content, the same charge as that levied by the
on-line edition of The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com. Variety.com
charges $2.95 for single-day access, compared with $0.75 for
WSJ.com. WSJ.com is often cited as a rare success story in
maintaining high user figures despite its subscription model.
Henry Shapiro, vice president and general manager of Variety.com
told news agency Reuters that the move to a subscription service
was not a direct result of the downturn in ad revenues. “We are a
high-priced premium product in print, gathering a targeted,
qualified, professional audience. Our strategy is about the quality
of the audience as opposed to tonnage.”
Initially, financial news provider TheStreet.com charged for its
content but changed to a free-access model because users could find
what they wanted at the free sites of competitors.
