What Happened:
ArsTechnica, technology publication, has launched a premium-paid level to its popular content. In a move following in the footsteps of GigaOm Pro, Ars Technica is charging user who wish $50 dollars yearly for a fully upgraded package of Ars content and services. Users who pay get access to “exclusive content” and “editors.” Also, Ars is removing all advertisements for paying users, and a say in the editorial process. It is almost akin to becoming a shareholder, in Ars, it seems. A full list of what is being offered can be found here.
What This Means:
Following Om Malik, Ars Technica has decided that what they do is more than mere blogging, and indeed to some will be worth paying for. Given the low yearly rate that both services offer, both make their premium services open to the masses. We recently covered the status of the GigaOm Project, which can be found here.
This continues to make a trend in the freemium direction away from advertising based solutions that can be found as other services begin to charge for what they deem “premium” content or capabilities. TechCrunch has also dipped its toe into the premium content space with the selling of their reports. RWW has been doing something similar. Mashable has long sold MySpace templates. The longer a major blog is around, the more it seems to cast around for revenue that exceeds the money possible from advertising.
What We Think:
The whole TechGeist team are long time fans and readers of Ars Technica. We consider it something of a high water mark in the technology space. To see them be able to charge a fair price for more content and capabilities is great. More power to them. However, we do not know yet how the community will respond. The culture of free is still wide and pervasive. And with people using AdBlocker most of the time, removing the ads might not be enough of an incentive to pay. Of course, that is only a single aspect of the content offering, but if it is moot, the service might not have the weight to bring people over the pay wall.
But, as with GigaOm Pro, the idea seems solid, the price low, and the value high. We will check in with Ars Technica in a month or so to see how the service is fairing.
