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Deciding whether to implement subscriptions or some kind of a payment system for your online content is a tough call. Here’s a look at a company that embraced the concept early and reaped the benefits of their decision: Access Intelligence’s Chemical Business Media switched its Chemical Week and Chemical Engineering Magazine Web sites to a paid-content model in 2007, according to Jason Fell at FOLIO Magazine. Fell reports that since the switch, the group has generated 30,000 new customers, helping to put a stop to a 30-year slide in revenue. Parts of ChemWeek.com are free for visitors, but most of the users convert to paid subscriptions to access more in-depth content. Read Jason Fell’s article on the company’s switch here.

Industry buzz content, micropayments, online, paid-content, payments, revenue, subscriptions

The debate continues over whether or not to charge for online content (Walter Isaacson’s “How to Save Your Newspaper” article in the Feb. 5th edition of Time magazine initially brought the topic to the general public’s attention). This week, the New York Observer sat down with outgoing Time Inc. managing editor Jim Kelly to continue the discussion. His take? Micropayments (a la iTunes) “would not work.” But subscribing to a bundle of premium content providers might be the way to go. Read more here.

Industry buzz content, micropayments, online