Condé Nast has revealed it plans to roll out a formal online subscription model across all its magazines, with the company’s outgoing chief executive officer, Bob Sauerberg, announcing its online US titles will be behind a paywall by the end of the year.
In a staff memo, Sauerberg said the move would be the “next phase” of a strategy that started in 2014, with three Condé Nast titles (The New Yorker, Wired and Vanity Fair) already behind paywalls that require readers to subscribe in order to access more than four articles per month.
Sauerberg added that audiences “have proven that they are willing to pay for” content at those brands, and that “the performance of those paywalls has exceeded expectations.”
According to him, how the paywall will work for remaining brands, such as Vogue, Bon Appétit and Condé Nast Traveler, will vary and not fit in a “one-size-fits-all strategy.”
"Just as we did for each of the brands currently behind paywalls, we will let consumer demand and engagement dictate how each brand develops their paid content strategy,” Sauerberg said. “Some brands may have specific content that will be gated, and some will have a wider metered paywall. Every brand is distinct, and every brand’s paywall will be its own distinct product.”
