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A fledgling online media outlet wants to help monetize users by giving them easy access to paywall content without being locked into multiple subscriptions.
Unveiling this week at TC Disrupt as part of the Battlefield 200 collection, the Zette is trying to achieve something others have attempted before. Since time immemorial (at least since the advent of the web), digital media businesses have been looking for new ways to make money. While the monetization path of traditional newspapers and magazines is relatively straightforward, as long as they charge money for physical production (often complete with paid advertising), the online sphere has had to juggle many models, from advertising and events, to — . Increasingly, it seems – paywalls.
But while paywalls provide clear and predictable revenue, it’s a difficult model to scale outside of mainstream outlets like the New York Times. People don’t want (or can’t afford) dozens of subscriptions, but that doesn’t mean they’re willing to pay. Something To access individual articles if given the option.
There are stories from hundreds of publications, such as Apple News+, and subscription-based services such as Blendle, which allow publications to pay microtransactions to read one-off articles. Zette centers around a $9.99 monthly subscription to get 30 articles from its partner publications, though it’s coming up with separate pricing plans for those who want to buy more credits. However, if the user does not use the credits in a month, this will not be carried over to the next month – everything starts over.
The story so far
Zet was founded in 2020 out of San Francisco by former Forbes reporter Yehong Zhu, and after raising $1.7 million in seed funding last year, the company is reaching members in private beta this week ahead of an expected public launch early next week. year. For now, Zete has signed deals with New Scientist, Forbes, McClatchy, Boone Newspapers and Haaretz, which it plans to strengthen by “hundreds” in the coming year.
So, how does it all work? Well, the user downloads and installs a browser extension, signs up for a Zette account and subscription, and when Zette finds a paywall on a partner website, the user is invited to open the article by paying a single credit.
It has been put into action. Image Credits: put up
The company said it is also considering allowing users to redeem some of their credits, although there is a time limit on when they must use them.
Perhaps the most important point to note here is that, unlike something like Apple News+, rather than serving as an aggregator, Zet’s approach to publishers is that their content stays on their own websites, allowing them to maintain a relationship with their readers.
“Publishers control the display and messaging of their content, unlike the Apple News ecosystem,” Zhou said. “Readers can access an article from anywhere — Twitter, Facebook, Google, iMessage, Slack, the news sites themselves — and still use Zet to open the article.”
Zet will initially focus on the US market, but has ambitions to launch in international markets as well.
“We are an American company that focuses on American readers first,” Zhou said. “We’re investing heavily in marketing and growth, especially to get younger readers — Gen Z and millennials — on board.”
Business model
In this type of model, perhaps, there may be some flaws. The advantage of subscribing to a publication directly is that you can find articles you like even if you don’t like everything in it. With a subscription-based, article payment model, you never know if they’re looking for it before you give them credits for the cause. On top of that, you might not stumble upon 30 paid articles in a month that you want to read. So for the $10 monthly fee, some subscribers simply may not find it worth it.
There are some elements of the Blendle model that make more sense. Built around single micro-transactions, there’s less pressure on the reader to use specific monthly articles – deposit money into your account and use it whenever you want. But while that may be a user-friendly model, it doesn’t benefit the publication or the company behind the technology. According to Zhou, this type of business model “encourages occasional use rather than sustained readership,” ultimately resulting in higher churn and monetization.
“We also believe that users will not enjoy the experience of having to pay a dollar and cent for every article they want to read,” Zhu continued. This gives them a ‘nickel and dime’ feel. For this reason, Zete takes inspiration from video games, where ‘virtual coins’ are purchased up front for in-app purchases: we replace cash with credits to take the customer away from the feeling of making a purchase. This makes each transaction less frictional, and makes it easier to top up credits each month. We believe that a microtransaction-like experience on the front end, with recurring revenue on the back end, is the best of both worlds.
Additionally, while there are advantages to a traditional news subscription — as readers can access everything from sports to politics in one publication — not everyone wants to read a newspaper cover to cover.
“Traditional news subscriptions serve one audience well: serious readers,” Zhou said. “These are readers who hit pay walls enough and often enough to become single-outlet customers. Most online readers are casual readers: they scan for news, they want to read just one article at a time so they don’t have to justify the cost and hassle of subscribing, they’re relatively brand agnostic.” , they are “price sensitive, and want diversity of content rather than getting all their news from just one publication.”
In addition to the browser extension, Zet is also working on a mobile app, which should be ready by the time Zet opens to the public in early 2023.
But for now, Zete says it’s starting to get a few users off its waiting list who will get free access for the rest of the year, though in return they’ll be responsible for giving the company feedback on ways to improve. the product.
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