WSJ believes flexible paywall will bring in more subscribers

The Wall Street Journal is betting that its flexible paywall will bring in more paying subscribers, reports Shan Wang of the Nieman Lab.

Wang writes, “More than 50 percent of the Journal’s subscription sales now come from individual articles like the 4 a.m. story, a ‘considerably higher percentage’ than before the Journal changed up its paywall strategy, Vanneck-Smith said, adding that ‘you’d expect 20 or 30 percent of your sales coming in that way, in a paywall model.’ Readers who entered their email for a guest pass were six times more likely to convert to a regular subscription. (Vanneck-Smith wouldn’t share exactly how many readers had shared their emails for pass access.)

“‘When you think about a subscription membership website, often you’re selling subscriptions from the shop or the sales page where you’ve got your compare and contrast of different options,’ she said. ‘Now our strategy is that any story that’s been shared by a member or journalist — either by email or social channels — is your invitation to come in. And 50 percent of all sales are now directly a result of something that’s been shared, which is an interesting change for us.’

“In August, the Journal hit 948,000 digital-only subscribers. Now, it’s surpassed a million (though actual figures for the quarter ending in December won’t be released until sometime in late January). The increase isn’t just thanks to a post-election wave of interest in and support for quality journalism, according to Vanneck-Smith: ‘Like everybody else, we’re seeing that growth accelerate, but we were seeing a great uplift in sales pre-election, too.’ (I kept referring to ‘paying readers,’ and Vanneck-Smith emphasized that they are ‘members.’)”

Read more here.