Manchester Confidential has been emailing some of its subscribers today asking for £11.20 a month, £30 a quarter or £100 a year to continue to access the site and receive a slew of new “benefits”.
The site, which has 260,000 (free) subscribers, announced plans for the paid subscription model last month. Its first move involves inviting 1,000 of its most “loyal” readers to pay to become a “hero”, which will allow “full site access with no restrictions” alongside a number of perks including 50% off the ticket price for ManCon events and a free ticket to the Confidential Food and Drink Awards dinner – itself worth £80. Alongside these benefits, ManCon “heroes” will have “responsibilities” – namely telling the site about new restaurants and bars they’ve been to. (Erm, shouldn’t they be paying me for this, rather than the other way round?)
Nobody, apart from Rupert Murdoch, thinks the subscription model can work for mainstream web content (excluding B2B). So it will be interesting to see if ManCon publisher Mark Garner can pull this off. The idea of flattering readers with “hero” status seems at least mildly imaginative but it remains to be seen if a thousand people will commit to a minimum spend of a hundred quid a year. Even if they do, that’s only ten grand in annual income for the site. Edit: Obviously it’s actually a hundred grand, pardon my shit maths. If this sum can be achieved then the need to get vast amounts of cash from remaining subscribers will be significantly reduced.
The screengrabs below show the detail of what is being offered, alongside the message that all subscribers can expect to receive over the next fortnight.
1.The email invitation
2. The “lowdown”
3. The benefits and “responsibilities”
4. The bottom line
The Conversation {5 comments}
Er, do your sums. 1000 people x £100 = £100,000. At least the last time I whipped out a calculator it was.
But no matter. Whichever way anyone wants to slice it, why cough up for restaurant reviews you can get for free by googling at least a dozen other review sites?
it’s a ballsy move, and it will be interesting to see how many sign up (if they make that public), but ultimately looks doomed to failure.
the eyeballs come because the content is good (and free), but everyday they get more choice. take the free away and eyeballs go elsewhere. and you risk alienating future visitors…
Interesting. I’m on a private forum that had a similar premium element. You didn’t get further access, but you did get a few bells and whistles.
I think that the people who coughed up did so because they valued the site and community, rather than the perks, but will it work for a money-making venture?
This seems to be saying ‘become our brand ambassador – for £100 a year’. The sheer brass balls of it astounds me.
I think models like this will work in the future, but that assumes that the internet=free perception among people all over the world changes.
I don’t think people are ready to pay for something they don’t have a particular allegiance to. Is ManCon sufficiently different to other, free, offerings to claim that allegiance among its users?
Interesting!
Isn’t The Guardian also thinking of doing something along these lines? Are they called patrons or something?
How many of ManCon subscribers pay to go the organised events? Maybe the 50% discount for those events covers the subscription fees?
As I’m much further down the hyperlocal news ladder it’s always interesting to see how more popular sites are attempting to generate revenue.
Oh, found this post via @robinbrown78 on twitter.
Cheers
John
There’s some more detail about it at How-Do, with mention of other strata of subscribers ManCon wants to introduce. Link: http://bit.ly/1bs81i Garner reckons 300 people have already signed up for the heroes thing.
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