Publishers roll out bundle initiatives to boost digital subscriptions

While such plans are not new, there is clearly a growing trend for news publishers to offer them. These bundled packagings are happening both within publishing groups as well as between publishers.

The reasons are equally clear in that such offers make subscribing more enticing to consumers by increasing the amount of content they have access to for a slight increase in price.

Last week, when The Boston Globe announced it was putting up a paywall on its Boston.com site, which is separate from the Globe's own main website and had previously contained free content, it offered subscribers an opportunity to include digital access Boston Magazine, which The Globe acquired earlier this year.

Other publishers are looking to gain a broader, international readership, which is becoming increasingly important as some national publishers find growth stagnating with their home audiences.

For example, in mid-October, News Corp Australia announced a digital subscription offer that allows subscribers to access content from three News Corp-owned publications: The Australian, The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London, for a single monthly or annual price.

Le Monde offers select subscribers free access to NYT

Just days before that, France's Le Monde launched a bundled offer that will allow the publisher to grant select subscribers a one-year complimentary subscription to The New York Times.

However, as noted in an article by Adweek's Mark Stenberg, in addition to being offered to a select group of subscribers vs being a general offering available to all subscribers, "It also only goes one way: The New York Times will not be offering its readers an opportunity to subscribe to Le Monde."

In late October, Bloomberg Media and Sports Business Journal announced a subscription partnership that offers readers increased access to the two companies' coverage of sports and business.

Through the partnership, new and current Bloomberg.com subscribers can get access to Sports Business Journal content through two limited-time bundled subscription offers. Non-subscribers can get a year of Bloomberg.com and 6 months of Sports Business Journal access for US$299, which equates to more than $500 in annual savings, according to the announcement. A second offer lets existing Bloomberg.com subscribers an unlimited month of SBJ for just $1.

As mentioned above, such offers are not new. Norway's Amedia launched a bundled subscription initiative called +Alt several years ago, which has allowed their digital subscribers to access content across Amedia's approximately 100 local news sites.

'Bundles make a lot of sense'

The New York Times, in particular, has been very active in such partnerships with other news publishers in recent years.

In March, an article on Nieman Lab noted that in the past year, premium subscribers to news publishers such as Spain's El País, Denmark's Politiken, The Irish Times and Italy's Corriere della Sera could also get The New York Times, The Athletic, Wirecutter, NYT Cooking as well as NYT Games.

How long some of these offerings and partnerships will last and what the long-term results will be remains to be seen, but the possibilities are certainly encouraging.

"However you set it up, bundles make a lot of sense, especially when they're complementary. … Finding complementary partners where both are marketing and there's perceived value saved for subscribers could be a win-win," wrote Jacob Cohen Donnelly on A Media Operator's website earlier this year.

Brian Veseling

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