Page 1 of 1

How do you decide which articles are free vs premium?

Atlas & The Audiencers have been asked this question far too many times, so we're diving deeper!

Unfortunately there isn't a single magic formula reply that we can give you. We can however tell you how to find it.

Hence the idea for this survey, to analyze how you're working to answer this question - how do you decide which articles are free vs premium?

Please note:

Your answers will never be cited or referenced in published content - any information you share will be anonymous but will be used to build a playbook of how to make better decisions when choosing which articles are free vs premium.

By filling out this form you agree to have your answer included in our analysis, and we may recontact you for more information. You'll also get first access to the article produced following this research.

Definitions:

- In this survey, "articles" are written content, published on your media website

- "Digital subscribers" are readers paying to access your content online

- "Premium" refers to articles blocked by a paywall, asking readers to pay to subscribe to access

About you & your organization

Your first and last name

Your work email address

Your job title

Company name

When did you launch a paywall (year)?

How many digital subscribers do you currently have (roughly)?

What % of your business' revenue comes from subs (roughly)?

About your free vs premium decision-making strategy

As a business, which digital revenue stream is your focus for the next year?

Digital advertising

Digital subscription

Subscription & advertising equally

Other

In terms of your digital subscription revenue stream, what is your current focus as a business?

Which KPIs do you use to measure audience engagement on an article?

Who in your company is in charge of defining your paywall strategy (job title)?

How would you classify your paywall? Metered, hard, freemium, or dynamic (dynamic being when the wall adapts to the user's profile or context)?

How do you currently decide which article is free or premium? E.g. article level (e.g. breaking news vs in-depth, opinion), subject level (e.g. politics vs sport), user level (e.g. highly engaged or fly-by visitor), author level, source of traffic, location...

Is this a manual or automated decision?

Manual

Automated

If A) Manual, who makes this decision?

If A) Manual, when do they make this decision? I.e. does a journalist write an article knowing it's reserved for subscribers only? Or do you decide after writing?

If A) Manual, do you ever change the article from free to premium post-publication, or vice versa? If yes, based on what factors and why?

If B) Automated, what tool do you use for this? Please specify not only the type (E.g. CMS) but the company.

If B) Automated, how does this tool make this decision? On what metrics?

What percentage of your content is currently behind a paywall (roughly)?

Do you block with any other types of walls? E.g. registration wall, data wall, etc. if yes, please specify.

If yes, how many articles do you offer for free after unlocking this wall before blocking with the paywall?

What research have you run to inform which articles to block and when? Please elaborate.

How do you measure the success of your premium articles? E.g. Last click conversion, subscriber engagement, paywall stop rate, premium content visibility rate, etc. Please specify.

Any other remarks or comments? Maybe your current challenges and questions around this question? Or let us know if you have an interesting story to share on this topic.

Thank you so much for your time!

Make sure you're signed up to The Audiencers to receive the analysis and recommendations after we've finished working on this project!

Questions? Interested in elaborating on your answer or sharing case studies? Email [email protected]