The Foundation of a Subscription-Based Site

Personalization is key for a paid-site setup.

By Bill Mickey
Monday, March 30, 2009

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With the economy in recession and the dual body-blow of shrinking ad pages and newsstand sales, publishers are nervously looking for new sources of revenue. Paid digital content is once again being scrutinized as another way to wring revenues from consumers. Rodale is one publisher that—before the market took a nosedive—has leveraged its brands and content into a network of subscription-based sites. To convince users to pay in the midst of a largely free content culture, the publisher has exploited a highly customizable platform backed up by a deep content well and persistent marketing plan.

The paid content debate is certainly nothing new. Publishers, for the most part, reluctantly went down the free content path a decade ago wondering if, by doing so, they’d forever devalued their products. Now that the ad-supported model is challenged in the print realm, publishers are looking online to see if there are opportunities yet to be leveraged. Time Inc. has recently revealed it is toying with the idea of putting some online content behind a paid wall. EVP John Squires told reporters in April that the company was going to start testing certain content areas to see where the company might be able to make money where the ad model wasn’t pulling its weight.

Rodale, however, with 10 standalone sites now offering a paid subscription model, has a decent head start into the paid content market, particularly as a publisher that’s traditionally put its content online for free.

Know How to Re-Engineer Content

Bill Stump, VP, brand editor and editor of MensHealth.com, points out that an extremely robust content-producing infrastructure is a must. Rodale has been successful in leveraging its brands and content into a variety of platforms—international editions, books, video, digital and so on—which has given it an understanding of how a brand can be deconstructed and re-engineered according to a new platform’s requirements.

However, Stump repeatedly referred to the importance of customization and personalization of digital content as one way to present value to consumers. “So much of what we do is programmable,” he says.

And by programmable, he means the “hundreds of thousands” of users across the ten sites can take the information and mold it into what they need—weight loss, recipes and exercise, for example. The Men’s Health Personal Trainer site puts subscribers, for a $45.50, three-month subscription, on an exercise plan with weekly check-ins. The site is currently offering a 30-day free trial package that then autorenews at $16.95 per month.

Service=Value

“It’s set up as a service,” says Stump, pointing out that the subscription sites are all part of the company’s vertical content offerings. The popular Abs Diet book also has its own subscription site with the same premise—and copious promotions to not only subscribe to the site, but by the book. “The Men’s Health Personal Trainer is more of an umbrella under which we can fit a lot of the diet and fitness pieces.”

Exercises, recipes, nutrition tips—all content that’s already being created for the other platforms—are packaged and presented in ways users can customize to fit their health goals.

All the sites are profitable, says Stump, adding that it’s “not an insignificant number.” And he notes that consumers, to be converted from a free-content culture, must readily recognize the value proposition. “More and more people understand that there’s value associated with actions they take. They want something of value in return.”