A PAYWALL THAT’s MORE chill

The Times had anonymous users reading the site for zip in return. After playing everyone’s favorite game, “how about we…” we re-envisioned the paywall from a “bleep you” to something a bit more rewarding.

In exchange for another free article, all we wanted in return was an email and some interests (via NYT newsletters). Not to drown them in sales emails, but to send them more of what interests them to drive sales through genuine engagement (and flashy price points).

This journey netted 587,000 news subscribers in Q1—leading NYT Cooking and Games to adopt the same model.