Nieman Journalism Lab
Using techniques true to its roots, Consumer Reports is presenting focus groups with mobile pricing plans for its own products. Subscribers to the website, who pay $26 a year, have full access to the mobile site. Nonsubscribers can pay $0.99 for a day pass and a $4.99 for a monthlong pass. A coworker found the $0.99 day pass convenient while he and his wife were crib shopping last weekend. Also interesting: The fee was charged to his cell phone provider.
In the works is an iPhone app that will enable shoppers to scan a bar code on an item in a store and pull up product and pricing information. The price for that is, well, still being tested.
Jerry Steinbrink, vice president of publishing for Consumer Reports, suggests that even though it’s a niche publication, there may be takeaways for news publishers:
