Why Quartz moved to an Africa membership strategy

Sara Guaglione of Digiday writes about the strategy behind why Quartz created a separate membership for Africa news.

Guaglione writes, “After initially taking a global approach to subscriptions — asking people to pay $100 a year to access more of Quartz’s international coverage, including from its Quartz Africa vertical — the publisher found that ‘there was more price sensitivity and people reading Quartz Africa really just wanted to read Quartz Africa,’ said Quartz editor-in-chief Katherine Bell.

“Quartz didn’t have regional pricing for its membership, so the team decided to launch a separate membership for those readers, at a lower price point. Quartz Africa costs $60 a year.

“The new Quartz Africa membership will give readers exclusive access to Quartz Africa content and a new Quartz Africa Member Brief. (Its Quartz Africa Weekly newsletter will remain free and the over 90,000 readers signed up to that newsletter will get four free editions of the Quartz Africa Member Brief to hopefully persuade them to subscribe to the Quartz Africa membership).

“Quartz Africa is the company’s second geographically-focused subscription product, after Quartz Japan. But unlike Quartz Africa, the Quartz Japan newsletter is mainly a translated version of the Quartz Daily Brief and focused on global news rather than the innovation and tech developing in the region. Quartz Japan has 4,400 members. Bell said they are looking at opportunities for a paid product in India.”

Read more here.