The Economist has narrowed its paywall

The Economist has tightened its paywall so readers have access to five articles a month rather than three a week, reports Lucinda Southern of Digiday.

Southern writes, “At the end of January, the subscription publisher changed its metered access after six months of testing. Reader research found that on average people either read five articles before subscribing or they sign up right away. And a high content threshold would allow potential subscribers to slip through the net and never hit the paywall.

“‘This approach has enabled us to do both: be a little more efficient on the subscription conversion while ensuring key placements like leaderboards still receive equal exposure,’ said Marina Haydn, managing director of global circulation.

“The Economist has been pretty generous with content, erring on the side of publishing more in front of the paywall and sharing through social platforms to drive people back to subscribe, believing its journalism is its best asset. It has 1.6 million digital and print subscribers, of these 790,000 have a digital subscription, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.”

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