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Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

dutchnews.nl

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Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#21

Post by arnvald »

3bodyProblem wrote: post #7

I think a 10 euro subscription service is a lazy business model, only one worse is everything based on ad revenue. I loved the fact that you could buy articles instead of getting another subscription. I tried to buy an article last year, I'm not 100% sure why, but I never succeed in reading the article that I wanted to read. I just wanted to pay like 10 euro's until i needed to pay the next 10. But they were already…

The problem with pay-per-article model is that every article you want to read is a separate purchase decision ("do I want to pay for this thing or not?". In order to make 10EUR from one user, they need to decide to buy 40 separate articles and that means deciding 40 times whether to pay for content. Maybe a subscription model based on credits would be better? For 10EUR/m you get 40 credits that you spend on articles, for 20EUR/m you get 100 credits etc. Similar to Audible, maybe that would work?

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#23

Post by Doubl »

It was worth a try but I hated the model. I want to pay a Netflix/Spotify ballpark figure per month and be able read all newspapers. Until then I am very happy to pay the €5 a month I currently pay for one good paper (way less than the rate they show on their site btw)

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#24

Post by Nextgrid »

Freak_NL wrote: post #20

Blendle didn't succeed in getting the major national newspapers on board, because providing access to all content would make them a publisher competing directly with each newspaper's own subscriptions. If you consider the price of a full subscription to a quality newspaper, you can see why Blendle would be way too cheap to sustain as a publishing partner; especially with a monthly flat fee. As a reader, I would love…

> If you consider the price of a full subscription to a quality newspaper

Newspaper subscription prices are extremely inflated when you compare what they would’ve earning from ads (and they were happy with ads until blockers came around).

If they actually priced the subscriptions for the same amount ads would bring them from an average reader (excluding ad blockers) they would be much more affordable.

Sadly, just like the movie industry, the publishers are being greedy and shot themselves in the foot.

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#25

Post by sgeisler »

55555 wrote: post #14

People don't like microtransactions. Deciding if each article is worth a quarter is a bad user experience.

The concept of micro transactions isn't the problem imo. The lack of automation is.

If there was a browser plugin that automatically paid up to x$ if an authorized website asks for it, but never more than y$ per month that would be a good compromise between subscription model and single article purchases. There would be the initial authorization, but after that no further interactions. The news website, instead of displaying a paywall, could talk to the plugin to facilitate the payment.

As long as you'd be fine of loosing up to y$ in case of a bug/hack/whatever this should work fine. If publishers were to increase prices they had to fear to cross the yolo-line of x$ and the user being explicitly asked for consent, that should keep them in check too.

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#26

Post by tannhaeuser »

Freak_NL wrote: post #18
tannhaeuser wrote: post #12

I'm curious what exactly didn't work out. Maybe it was just the friction of signing up to read a single article? In that case, maybe what would've helped is sending the article anonymously via MMS and use carrier billing? Like 1990s ring tone downloads, though I'm not sure this model would even work today because Google's Stagefreight bug (or was it on purpose to close another channel not benefitting Google?) made te…

How would MMS help unless you read Blendle on a smartphone? Hardly anybody uses MMS in the Netherlands in any case (Blendle is Dutch).

I was assuming most people read news on a smartphone. You do have those in NL, don't you ;) As to nobody using MMS, my point was that we've been "educated" (brainwashed) to use HTTP for everything, when MMS and carrier billing actually used to be a decent and widely accepted alternative for distributing digital media with a natural micropayment mechanism. Though Telcos are greedy af and take a hefty markup for carrier billing (I know since I've worked for them), the regulatory framework around Telcos and 3/4/5G in the EU at least takes care of monopolies.

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#27

Post by AndrewDucker »

Doubl wrote: post #23

It was worth a try but I hated the model. I want to pay a Netflix/Spotify ballpark figure per month and be able read all newspapers. Until then I am very happy to pay the €5 a month I currently pay for one good paper (way less than the rate they show on their site btw)

Yeah. I'll happily pay £15-£20 for access to all newspapers. I'm not going to pay any one newspaper for a subscription, because I don't read that many articles from any individual paper.

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#28

Post by andy_ppp »

sgeisler wrote: post #25
55555 wrote: post #14

People don't like microtransactions. Deciding if each article is worth a quarter is a bad user experience.

The concept of micro transactions isn't the problem imo. The lack of automation is. If there was a browser plugin that automatically paid up to x$ if an authorized website asks for it, but never more than y$ per month that would be a good compromise between subscription model and single article purchases. There would be the initial authorization, but after that no further interactions. The news website, instead of di…

You’re going to persuade millions of people to install a browser extension so they can pay for content? You have the incentives backwards...

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#29

Post by calcifer »

Nextgrid wrote: post #24
Freak_NL wrote: post #20

Blendle didn't succeed in getting the major national newspapers on board, because providing access to all content would make them a publisher competing directly with each newspaper's own subscriptions. If you consider the price of a full subscription to a quality newspaper, you can see why Blendle would be way too cheap to sustain as a publishing partner; especially with a monthly flat fee. As a reader, I would love…

> If you consider the price of a full subscription to a quality newspaper Newspaper subscription prices are extremely inflated when you compare what they would’ve earning from ads (and they were happy with ads until blockers came around). If they actually priced the subscriptions for the same amount ads would bring them from an average reader (excluding ad blockers) they would be much more affordable. Sadly, just lik…

Guardian's annual contribution starts at €0.96 per week [1]. Greedy? If anything, that's too cheap.

[1] https://support.theguardian.com/eu/contribute

Re: Blendle ditches pay-per-article service

#30

Post by CarbonvanE »

Freak_NL wrote: post #20

Blendle didn't succeed in getting the major national newspapers on board, because providing access to all content would make them a publisher competing directly with each newspaper's own subscriptions. If you consider the price of a full subscription to a quality newspaper, you can see why Blendle would be way too cheap to sustain as a publishing partner; especially with a monthly flat fee. As a reader, I would love…

How did you come to the conclusion that Blendle didn't get the major national newspapers on board? In the old model every single major newspapers was since the start on board and only the NRC left in 2016. With Premium all major newspapers except NRC and de Telegraaf are on board. So practically every newspaper in the Netherlands is on board with both the micro-payment the subscription model.

(disclosure: I work part-time for Blendle)

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