Quartz is hoping to build a community with its membership plan

Quartz is hoping to build a community around a new membership program that includes events, exclusive content and regular conference calls with Quartz staffers, reports Max Willens of Digiday.

Willens writes, “The membership is built around a mixture of content and community features including weekly, in-depth reports on hot-button business ideas called field guides, the ability for members to suggest questions for Q&As and regular conference calls between members and Quartz journalists. The publisher will also begin hosting exclusive member events starting in 2019.

“Quartz’s membership joins an increasingly crowded field of consumer offerings being brought to market by digital publishers, ranging from exclusive products like The Information, which can cost up to $749 for an individual subscription to incremental add-ons from legacy digital players like Yahoo, which announced it would be launching a paid version of Yahoo Finance in 2019.

“Most of the most expensive publisher offerings focus on skills. ‘The clearer it is that your membership solves a real problem for readers, the more you’re going to edge toward that higher price point,’ said Rob Ristagno, the founder of Sterling Woods Group.  ‘You’ve got to make them more skilled at their job, or you’ve got to make them more successful at something they’re enthusiastic about.’

“The Quartz offering splits the difference, delivering in-depth looks at important business topics aimed at readers unfamiliar with them, while adding community dimension as well.”

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