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If Redstate had a paywall would you subscribe?

I’ve thought for a long time about it and if Redstate had a paywall and/or a subscription plan to be a part of the blog, I would pay for it.  I’m thinking somewhere along the lines of $5.00 a year to read only front page articles, $10 a year to read front page and recommended entries as well as comment, and $25 a year to read and contribute with full commenting privileges everywhere (subject to applicable rules, of course). 

What do you think?  For a long time I’ve wanted not to *contribute* to Redstate but actively to *pay* for the content here.

To help the process of thinking about this I have 5 options and I’d prefer if you indicate your choice in the response:

1 – I would never pay for anything on a blog or in the blogosphere. 
2 – I would pay a subscription fee to read the blog but not comment
3 – I would pay a fee to read the blog, comment but not contribute entries
4 – I would pay a fee if it allowed me full access including creating entries
5 – I believe in micropayment subscriptions for all access, all the time

COMMENTS

  • Tbone

    several dollars a year.

    • kowalski

      There are a couple of people I’ve missed. Heh. TC’s not around much, and things aren’t quite what they used to be. But I’d still pay the subscription price if a “subscription” meant my ability to contribute. I consider it a privilege to post diary entries here, not a right.

  • Viet71

    Suppose, just suppose, RS became even partially dependent on subscription fees. How much harder would it become to ban an army of infiltrators, interlopers, and loudmouths from the Left and elsewhere?

    • Viet71

      n/t

      • kowalski

        And I also don’t understand the line of thinking.

        The idea seems to be: “We can’t charge people because we want to be able to ban them. As a result of that, all the rest of us have to pay the cost in time and effort dealing with them.”

        But if they violate an agreement that you stipulate in advance there’s no problem with that. When you sign up, you agree that you’re licensing the software, basically. The editors have a very broad leeway to specify the terms. At this point Redstate is really a cloud-based application. It’s software as a service. If you want to access it, there are terms of service attached to that.

        • Viet71

          no text

  • Finrod

    I don’t see myself making an exception for RedState.

  • Common_Cents

    Some good discussion here but wouldn’t subscribe for it as there are other places. I’d probably think the site owner uses the site as marketing reach and credibility for the rest of the business, not as a standalone profit center.

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      If you want to support that business model, don’t block them. :)

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      .

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  • Tbone

    You sound like Buffet.

  • kowalski

    The Washington Post is having a big discussion about this today and I’m wondering what value people place on their ability to read and contribute here, if any.

    Contributing to Redstate is fine but I think it’s time the online world move beyond the voluntary “everything should be free” model.

    My answer is “5″ by the way.

  • gawken

    Watching the growth and influence, of RS increase dramatically over the years, could that be impacted by a paywall? I refer specifically to the increasing number of influential conservative politicians and candidates who post here,, i.e. because they recognize that RS is a viable, and valuable forum to reach the conservative base. If it was a more “overt” commercial entity in appearance, might they be less inclined to use RS as a forum?

    I think I’m more inclined to have a system of voluntary donations…which could be encouraged/promoted in an annual, or perhaps, a semiannual fundraising effort. Ideally, we’d get a lot of readers donating a small amount, say $10..and maybe a few larger contributions.

    Not sure of the mechanics of the process, orT the cost factor..but ever see those fundraising efforts where it says “TEXT 34567″ or somesuch, to donate $10 to XYZ..That might be a way to go. Easy, simple, and very quick.

  • kowalski

    I think $10 a year would be a great starting point.

    Here at Redstate, there’s a lot of value in just being able to contribute as a layperson. It’s really the premier Conservative blog in the country. I think people should be willing to ante up $10 or $15 or $25 a year to be members.

  • kowalski

    Give his service over the years and Erick’s and everyone else’s here, I think the idea of having a subscription to this blog, or a micropayment system, is one whose time has come.

    Everyone here does valuable work. I spent more than 5 hours the other day just answering responses in my own blog entry. I know Erick and Neil and YOU and many others here spend a lot of time. Well, there should be some, ahem – VALUE attached to that value.

    There can be discounts for regular contributors, or even a revenue-sharing mechanism put in place. But I think it’s well past the time people started discussing it.

  • westcoastpatriette

    would have on the ability of moderators to ban commenters? Aside from that, I like things as they are but would consider subscribing if I was forced to.

  • kowalski

    If someone gets banned, you know when you received their subscription and you can refund it. Or you can say: “If you get banned, no refunds. Period.” Say that right up front.

    But that’s also why a micropayment system works well. You pay each time, there’s nothing upfront, and if you get banned, you get banned.

  • kowalski

    Licensing the privilege to contribute, subject to an agreement. I think setting a price point on it is important, and it shouldn’t be $0.00. This blog is read by:

    1) Senators
    2) Congresspeople
    3) Influential decisionmakers in the media
    4) Influential decisionmakers in the business world
    5) Probably the staffs of Presidents if not the Presidents themselves
    6) Policymakers and people who influence policy
    7) Influential voters
    8) News aggregators
    9) Concerned and articulate citizens
    10) Various and sundry rabble rousers

    And a lot of others. Right now the value set on the creation of the content is $0.00. But the audience they’re getting is a select group, and working to create the blog and supply the comments and arguments is a time-consuming and important task. There’s a value associated with that, and it’s not $0.00.

  • honoraryintern

    …conservative values are broad in their applications.

    Aside: While trying to research Romney judges, I found a 2008 RedState post with you and Mbecker (he seemed less angry back then), you guys are really are part of this institution and I’d easily defer to those long term opinions.

    I truly appreciate any post that is well thought out, regardless of agreement. Just ask Mew, even the two of us have come to agreement, once.

    But my son lives in split households, moving back and forth; I say, ‘He buys his own’, She has purchased dozens of apps. Conservative values start at the wallet.

    I see this forum as a free exchange of ideas, that get honed by the barrage of big brains, from all different conservative perspectives. RedState’s core value comes from my willingness to match your contribution of time and thought in a post. A True Market of Ideas.

    And now I catch myself agreeing with Mew, again (scary). Adding financial market motivation to the exchange would change it’s core attraction, even the topics posted. I guess the question is, is it a business or something else?

    How about a bigger box that encourages contributions, rather than the single word? I give at church. Why not the number of contributors each month, or even post names, in the box?

    Great question… giant impact in what RedState is and will be.

  • kowalski

    For my own self-enrichment, that’s for sure. What I’m saying is that so far, Redstate has really never tried to monetize this blog and that doing so would *improve* the quality of the articles, editorials and entries here.

    I had a conversation with a business associate tonight and we were discussing my last blog entry about guns and civility and he was astounded at the amount of time and effort I put into it. And he said: “But why are you giving all that away? What do you get from the 5 hours you put into it except a lot of headaches?” And I realized again that he was right. One of the reasons you don’t have more authoritative people talking here, I think, is that the barrier for entry has always been set so ridiculously low that it makes the cost of maintaining the thing more than it’s worth. I think Redstate should become a real enterprise.

    If I knew everyone else was paying at least SOMETHING to sit there and pose endless questions and demand creative and authoritative answers from me, I’d be a lot more inclined to keep contributing. If there was a revenue-sharing mechanism in place that earned me $50 or $100 a year, great. But more importantly I think that it would improve the quality of the commentary and the posts themselves, from the front page to the diaries, and I always really have.

  • noodle

    This site is interactive if one wants to participate, but is wonderful also for the casual reader. I would be in favor of paying for the privelege of being able to comments on articles and diaries, but think the site might lose a lot of future readers if they had to pay to read. Clearly there are some people here that should be compensated for all the effor they put into their work (other than helping to save the country). I don’t write a diary, just comment occasionally (not much since Perry dropped out), but it would be interesting to see if there are people who would join and contribute diaries if there was a chance they would be reasonably compensated. It might just grow like crazy. If we charge for readers, then the people on Capitol Hill and the White House would have to pass that on to the taxpayers or stop reading.

  • Scope

    over toward the left hand side, there is a button to hit to “contribute.” No one at RS bans contributions I believe, and they don’t have to go through the mess of refunds. I’ve seen sites that often put their tamborine’s out like beggars, and they usually have low readership/membership. Wouldn’t you be much better off posting a diary where you promote tipping the bartenders, rather than mandatory payment up front? Quite honestly, there have been many people that show up here from time to time that couldn’t be charged enough to force the readers to read what they write. Oh, and, the Ron Paulies would be atrocious when Paul gives them a free bus ride, free hot dogs, and a pre-paid subscription to RS, to get out the vote for him.

  • kowalski

    Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back before most of us were adults, there was a newfangled thing called “Cable TV” that appeared in some people’s homes with walnut-colored set top boxes with a dozen or so buttons on them.

    When they first appeared, I remember a vivid and heated conversation about “paying for television” taking place in my grandfather’s house. After about 3 minutes he slammed his foot down on the floor shook his fist at everyone and said: “I’d die before I paid a nickel for television. It’s all garbage. I’d just as soon throw the damn boxes out into the garden.”

    Flash forward a year and a half and we drive up to Massachusetts for Christmas…

    We walk into the living room and my grandfather is sitting in his leather chair munching on a box of Bugles, and there’s a new television with a new remote, and a set top box, and he’s watching Louis Rukeyser….on Cable TV.

    I was a just a child and I looked at the set-top box and said: “But Dad, he said…” Everybody turned various shades of purple, anticipating the blast wave. And my grandfather got up from his chair and came over and gave me a BIG hug and said: “Well, I change my mind, sometimes, Alex. Now go help your father unload the car.”

    And that was that.

  • Tbone

    not stay.

  • acat

    One of the reasons your assessment of Red State readership is accurate is because it’s a relatively broad cross-section of grass-roots conservatives. Add a pay-wall, and that changes. Dramatically.

    There are plenty of other free (non-pay-wall) spots to discuss politics – my recent cyber-stalker found (and posted trash, under my name) on several.

    So long as some are willing to give it away, pay-per-view is a losing business model, eh?

    Mew

    p.s. Why Dewey Defeats Truman? Simple! The publisher of the Chicago Trib decided to run that headline in part based on a telephone poll .. not realizing that such a poll would self-select those wealthy enough to have a phone… Do we really want to see who would self-select to subscribe to Red State, or are we better off just reminding everyone to tip your waiters and waitresses from time to time?

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    See the Contribute link up top.

  • kowalski

    I’m just asking a question now that I’ve asked in the past. I appreciate everyone’s comments even though I know I would subscribe if there was a payment system. There are very few places I would subscribe to but Redstate is one of them.

  • kowalski

    I ask every few years, partially to gauge people’s opinions and state my own.

    Yours in Faith :)

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    I just… don’t want people to get the idea that this is any sort of official trial balloon. :)

  • Darin_H

    The only thing I ever do is try to remember to hit the Amazon search boxes on websites I read that have it (Moe, Ace of Spades, Patterico).

  • kowalski

    “This was one of my Kowalski questions that I asked a few years ago and it’s meant as an informal barometer of opinion that is in no way connected to anything or anyone official at Redstate. I came up with the question in response to a discussion I saw someplace else and decided to reprise the question after having asked it several years ago. I still think Neil and Erick work too cheap. And I would subscribe to this online publication. Thank you for your attention.”

    :)

  • aesthete

    There are plenty of places where you could go to argue about politics without paying a premium.

    The unique attributes of RS — namely, that it serves as a clearinghouse for activists and grassroots — would be irreparably damaged if it moved towards a subscription-based model, and its functionality would be supplanted by another website.

  • http://www.thestandardcandle.com Justin Spagnolo

    If more newspapers and websites put more thought in generating revenues outside of everyday content, they’d have more opportunities to grow…

    Generally if you want a large audience, make it easy to come to you.

    Then spend more time up-selling the audience. (pay more for the popcorn and drinks than the movie so to speak)

    I’d be much more obliged to purchase a book by front page authors (Erick’s “Red State Uprising: How to take back America”), or pay for an organizing event (redstate gathering), or donate (if i could afford to), or pay for specialized content (Redstate Armry training videos, Special Exclusive interviews, “for premium members”), or the standard web-advertising model (google adwords/ad banners/ad boxes).

  • BigRedConservative

    Redstate works fine as it is. If you want to make a financial contribution to the conservative movement, donate to a worthy candidate or Heritage or someone of their ilk. But to paywall Redstate is to close the site to droves of people who just can’t cope with another encroachment on their (heavily pinched) wallets. And that’s a shame.

  • BigRedConservative

    .

  • sulmak

    Honestly you wouldn’t attract many new members that way, especially with the thousands of free blogs that way. It worked for newspapers back in the day because people would see other people reading them in coffee shops and such, as well as seeing the front page in those little dispenser things. People don’t see other people reading redstate unless they actually look right at a laptop screen, rather than the huge backside of a newspaper.

    Also, I remember when I first looked at redstate after seeing a link to it, just reading the name, before reading an article, I assumed from the name that it was a communist website.

    If I couldn’t have read the article before paying I would have not payed and continued to assume it was a communist website.

    So 1 I guess.

    Although, to tell the truth, in my entire adult life(no that long), I don’t think I have ever paid for any reading material other than educational textbooks or gifts for people older than me, and if you want to get technical the cost of my internet connection and computer. So perhaps I’m lower on the list, a 0 option or something.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    New blood keeps a site going. And even if you can capture the core of the existing community, by failing to bring in new people, we’d slowly suffocate the site.

    Also, a lot of our reach is through the Morning Briefing, and we’re much less likely to draw money out of those subscribers.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    ;-)

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    Try my 6 years, 11 months. :)