Ten days ago, we wrote you, our readers, asking for your feedback regarding a potential metered paywall to techPresident.com, as one way to support Personal Democracy Media’s work.
Thank you for all comments. Your responses to our survey have been gratifying and clarifying. Here’s what we learned:
-First of all, you are a loyal group. Nearly three-quarters of you have been reading techPresident for more than one year, and half more than two years. (Though we love our new readers too!)
-You’re reading us for the right reason: to get info on the latest trends in tech and politics.
-It was gratifying to learn that the vast majority of you said you were extremely or very likely to recommend techPresident to others. That means a lot to us.
-Most of you–two-thirds–never pay any fees for news sites. And those of you who do generally are paying either for the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.
On the cautionary side, only 7% said you would definitely subscribe and another 15% said you would consider it. Slightly more than half said you’d just read up to the ten article limit.
We understand that the idea of a paywall isn’t getting a great deal of support. So here’s what we’ve decided to do. We’re going to keep techPresident content free, as is.
But we’re going to try an experiment that you might call a “metered nudge.” As you visit techPresident, you will see an occasional reminder thanking you for your attention, and asking you to become a Personal Democracy Plus member, or to simply help support the site with a one-time contribution. If you want to ignore it you can (and you can also reset your cookies if you never want to see this). But we’re hoping that a gentle nudge may encourage many of you to come on board, in whatever way makes the most sense for you.
In this way, we hope we can achieve the best of both worlds where we can continue to offer a great resource to our community for free, but at the same time collect a new source of financial support that will allow us to sustain it into the future.
Thanks again for your feedback. And now, back to our regular programming.
October 26, 2012