Memberships for online magazines and publishers

Online magazines and independent publishers have spent years searching for a business model that doesn't depend entirely on advertising. For many, membership has become the answer: readers pay not only to read, but to support journalism, criticism or writing they believe in, and to be part of the circle around it. A regional arts magazine, a specialist review, a long-form essay site or a local news outlet can all run this model, even with a small team.

A publisher's membership is different from a course or a community. The product is a stream of editorial work, and much of it may still be free to read. That makes the question “what exactly are members paying for?” more interesting, and more important to answer clearly.

Subscribers buy access; members buy in

It helps to separate two motives that often get lumped together:

• Access. The reader wants articles they can't get anywhere else. This is a subscription in the classic sense, and it works best when your work is hard to replace: deep specialist coverage, local reporting nobody else does, a critic whose taste people trust.
• Belonging and support. The reader wants the publication to exist and wants to feel part of it. This is membership in the fuller sense, and it works when readers identify with your mission, your voice or your community.

Most publishers need both, in different proportions. Start by writing down, in one sentence, what your publication promises its readers. A one-sentence promise makes it far easier to decide which motive you're selling to and what your membership page should say.

Choosing how much to put behind the paywall

There are three common approaches, and each suits a different kind of publication.

A hard paywall

Nearly everything is for paying readers. This suits specialist publications that readers need for work or a serious interest, where the audience is clearly defined. The risk is invisibility: little of your work gets shared, quoted or found in search.

A metered model

Readers get a set number of free articles a month before being asked to register or join. It lets casual visitors sample your work while nudging regular readers toward paying. It needs tuning: set the meter too tight and newcomers leave, too loose and nobody ever reaches it.

Open access with supporter membership

Everything is free to read, and members pay because they value the work and receive extras around it. This suits mission-driven publications, local news and writing that depends on wide reach. It relies heavily on the strength of your appeal and the quality of the extras.

Many publishers combine these: news and short pieces free, archives and in-depth features for members, and a clear, warm invitation to support the work at the end of every article.

Benefits that give membership its own value

If most of your writing is free, members need a reason beyond reading. Ideas that work well for publishers:

• The archive. Years of back issues, organized into collections by theme, are valuable and cost you nothing new to produce.
• A members' letter from the editor explaining what's coming, why a story was covered and what the team is thinking about.
• Early access to major features or the next issue.
• A cleaner reading experience with fewer or no ads.
• Events, such as online conversations with writers, launch evenings or a members' salon.
• A say in coverage: reader questions that shape a story, polls on topics, or a members' letters page.
• Print or keepsake editions, such as a printed annual anthology for higher tiers.

Whatever you choose, make the member experience feel different from the public one, even in small ways. Making the members area feel worth paying for matters especially when the core content is free to everyone.

An illustrative tier structure

Here is how The Harbor Review, a hypothetical regional arts and culture magazine, might package membership. The prices are round illustrations only.

Reader (free, registered): three full features a month and the weekly newsletter.

Member: $8 a month or $80 a year. Unlimited features, the full archive, the editor's members' letter and invitations to online events.

Patron: $200 a year. Everything above, plus the printed annual anthology, an optional name in the patrons' list and two tickets to the in-person launch evening.

The free registered level does real work here. It gives the magazine an email address for every regular reader, and that list is where most future members come from.

Keeping members once they've joined

Publishers face a particular retention problem: members who stop reading don't notice they're paying until the renewal arrives, and then they cancel. Keep your work in front of them.

• Send a short, regular email that highlights one or two pieces members would otherwise miss.
• Show members what their money made possible: the investigation that ran, the new writer you commissioned, the local event you covered.
• Invite members to things. Events and conversations create a relationship that articles alone don't.
• Encourage annual plans for supporter-minded readers, and remind them of the year's work before they renew.

Mistakes publishers make with membership

• Launching a paywall without first building an email list of regular readers to invite.
• Asking for support in vague terms instead of explaining what the money pays for.
• Promising members exclusive extras the editorial team has no time to produce.
• Hiding the archive under dates and issue numbers rather than the topics people care about.
• Treating members like customers in marketing emails and like strangers everywhere else.

Your first moves

1. Decide whether your readers mostly want access, belonging or both.
2. Choose a paywall approach that fits: hard, metered or open with supporters.
3. List three extras your team can deliver every month without strain.
4. Add a free registration step so regular readers give you their email address.
5. Write a membership appeal that names what members fund, and place it at the end of every article.
6. Organize your archive into themed collections before you promote it as a benefit.