The San Francisco SEO Chronicle Thursday launched a program granting subscribers a series of perks including special access to Chronicle reporters and editors, discount offers from local businesses and tickets to museums and movies.
The Chronicle currently offers a digital subscription for $10.99 per month and a print sub for $5.00 per week. Anyone with a print subscription gets a digital version at no extra charge.
Several news organizations have unveiled exclusive content recently in a bid to lure more digital subscribers:
- The New York Times In April launched two new subscription products, NYT Now and Times Premier.
- Slate in March unveiled Slate Plus, a “freemium” offering that gives readers access to members-only chats with advice columnist Emily Yoffe and ad-free podcasts.
- Earlier this month, The Guardian debuted a membership program offering book tickets, a briefing email, a 20 percent discount on Guardian events and a membership card.
- The Dallas Morning News last year did away with its paywall in favor of a “premium digital experience environment” with improved navigation and less advertising. The initiative was killed in July.
The New York Times added 32,000 digital-only subscribers earlier this year after releasing NYT Now and Times Premier, but the cost of rolling out the new products far outpaced the revenue they generated, Ryan Chittum reported for Columbia Journalism Review in July.
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