{"id":652909,"date":"2013-04-17T13:00:54","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/?p=227837"},"modified":"2013-04-17T13:00:54","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T17:00:54","slug":"the-atlantic-is-going-to-launch-a-paid-content-offering-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/652909","title":{"rendered":"The Atlantic is going to launch a paid content offering soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlantic Magazine has long resisted the idea of a paywall, but Atlantic Media President Justin Smith revealed at GigaOM’s paidContent Live 2013 conference<\/a> in New York Wednesday that the company is about to launch a paid product within the next two or three weeks.<\/p>\n

Smith didn\u2019t go into many details about the nature of the offering, but he made it clear that the company had no choice but to try every kind of monetization. \u201cTo say the ad model is gonna win over the pay model is foolish,\u201d Smith said. The key would be to unlock multiple revenue streams, not to just put all your eggs in one basket.<\/p>\n

Smith got some support for that notion from fellow panelist Raju Narisetti, senior vice president and deputy head of strategy at News Corp. Narisetti\u2019s company may be seen as one of the driving forces behind paywalls, but he stressed Wednesday that News Corp. actually has been experimenting with lots of different options, ranging from tight paywalls for the Times all the way to free sites like All Things Digital. But he also defended paywalls against criticism, saying that newspapers were \u201ccourageous\u201d for taking the step to charge for their content. \u201cWe have a lot of faith in our journalism,\u201d he argued, including in the notion that people would pay for this kind of content.<\/p>\n

Bob Bowman, President and CEO, MLB Advanced Media, strongly voiced support for this perspective. \u201cAny publication out there should have a paid content product,\u201d he said, arguing that all publications have avid fans that are willing to pay for content He asked, \u201cWho are you to say: ‘we don\u2019t want your money?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, asking for money doesn\u2019t always need to involve paywalls. That was a point driven home by ProPublica President, Richard Tofel, who revealed Wednesday that his nonprofit organization has received donations from 2,300 supporters last year, with 100 of the contributing on \u201cquite significant levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

His prediction for monetizing and sustaining journalism? \u201cEvery major city in this country has a symphony,\u201d Tofel said. Eventually, cultural institutions like symphony orchestras, libraries and museums would be complemented by nonprofit press institutions. Having nonprofit press is essential for many areas that can\u2019t be covered by traditional media organizations anymore, he argued, whether those have a paywall or not.<\/p>\n

Check out the rest of our paidContent Live 2013 coverage here, and a video embed of the session follows below:<\/p>\n