The Tribune Co. is now the latest company to move toward niche subscription products. The Los Angeles Times is going to turn the LATimes.com entertainment section, CalendarLive, into a subscription Web service, Poynter’s Steve Outing reports. Seven-day-a-week print subscribers to the Times will get free CalendarLive access, otherwise readers will have to pay $4.95 for one month or $39.95 for a year. The main LATimes.com news site will remain free to all registered users. The move is aimed at strengthening the value of a print subscription.
“We know that the public’s reception of paid sites (other than porn) has been less than enthusiastic,” Executive Producer Elaine Zinngrabe said in a post to the Online-News list. “Still, we feel the need to explore this business model; we need to place a value on our content and evaluate the relationships between print and online subscriptions. As someone from another paid newspaper site put it, ‘If you want to drink the milk, you’re going to have to start paying to feed the cow.’
We’ll be making a number of improvements to the site to make it more valuable to consumers, including a redesign that makes it easier to search for events and venues and adds a few new online-only features. Most notably, we’ll also be adding a discount program that offers savings on movies, dining and other recreational activities. We think this makes a nice complement to the reviews and listings, and hopefully helps online-only subscribers see their way clear to a relatively low subscription price.”
