ESPN bets sports fanatics will pay for online - BusinessWeek
June 4, 2009
ESPN The Magazine, the decade-old print offshoot of Walt Disney (DIS)'s wildly successful cable sports network, is about to begin charging for access to its Web site. As of June 5, the company shuttered its espnthemag.com site and is merging almost all of the magazine's Web content—which includes articles and ongoing Web video series‐into its ESPN Insider service, which costs $6.95 a month, or $39.95 a year.
At a time when many media companies are merely jawboning about demanding fees from online users, this magazine is doubling down on it. More broadly, such a move by a well-known name will plumb whether a paying customer equals a more enthralled customer—the term in the trade is "engaged"—and a more valuable target for advertisers as well...
ESPN The Magazine, the decade-old print offshoot of Walt Disney (DIS)'s wildly successful cable sports network, is about to begin charging for access to its Web site. As of June 5, the company shuttered its espnthemag.com site and is merging almost all of the magazine's Web content—which includes articles and ongoing Web video series‐into its ESPN Insider service, which costs $6.95 a month, or $39.95 a year.
At a time when many media companies are merely jawboning about demanding fees from online users, this magazine is doubling down on it. More broadly, such a move by a well-known name will plumb whether a paying customer equals a more enthralled customer—the term in the trade is "engaged"—and a more valuable target for advertisers as well...
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