Berlin-based publisher Axel Springer has big plans in the works for its U.S.-based properties in 2016, including a possible subscription model for Business Insider, reports Bloomberg Business. Axel Springer acquired an additional 88% of Business Insider in September for $343 million, bringing its ownership to 97%. The remainder is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Business Insider has an estimated 45 million unique monthly visitors.In addition to considering a paywall for Business Insider, Axel Springer will charge for content on its Upday mobile news app during the latter half of 2016. In beta testing, the largely ad-supported Upday is expected to be released in early 2016. It will launch exclusively on Samsung smartphones which are the best-selling smartphones in Europe, says Bloomberg.On Tuesday, Axel Springer announced that it has purchased a larger share in New York-based NowThis Media, becoming the start-up’s second largest investor. Axel Springer led a $16 million funding round for NowThis Media, increasing its stake from 4.3% to 14.6%, according to Bloomberg.Targeting 18- to 34-year-olds, NowThis Media produces short videos about trending stories for mobile devices. Using new technology, the start-up identifies trending news topics on social networks. Then editors quickly produce and publish high quality videos that are then distributed on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Vine, Kik, WeChat and YouTube. Currently, the start-up publishes about 60 videos daily.Jens Mffelmann, CEO Axel Springer Digital Ventures and President USA of Axel Springer, explains the move:

“We are increasing our share in a promising journalistic start-up that is focusing on the attractive future market of mobile and social video consumption. The company has already built up an impressive reach of more than 650 million video views per month and has been able to record its first successes with advertising customers. Our BILD and WELT brands are also benefiting from our participation and the mutual exchange of know-how and experience.”

In a separate announcement Tuesday, Axel Springer said it acquired the remaining 15% in online classified ad company Axel Springer Digital Classifieds from General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm based in New York, bringing Axel Springer’s total ownership to 100%. As part of the $508 million deal, General Atlantic will receive nearly 9 million shares in Axel Springer, or 8.3%.In 2012, Axel Springer and General Atlantic formed a partnership to expand Axel Springer’s business in the digital classified arena. As a result of the companies’ efforts, Axel Springer has expanded into job portals, car classifieds, and Israeli classifieds, among others.Insider Take:

Axel Springer is on a spending spree, and it is investing heavily in digital dollars and in English media. Why? According to Mathew Ingram for Fortune, since Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner took over as CEO in 2002, he has been focused on a strategy to take cash flow from its lagging print publications and using it to fund digital growth.In many cases, Axel Springer is banking on smaller, not-yet-proven new media and media-related companies including Blendle and Politico. Axel Springer also made a play for the Financial Times earlier this year, but lost out to Nikkei who acquired the FT Group, owner of the Financial Times, from Pearson in July.Anything that affects publishing is interesting to us, but we are particularly curious to see how Axel Springer monetizes its digital properties. Will they use metered paywalls or hard paywalls? Will they test before implementation? How transparent will the process be? How do they identify the right price point for their target audience? What goals will they set for converting free users to paid ones?In October, industry expert Ken Doctor speculated that Business Insider would use a metered paywall, making regular users pay for content but allowing casual readers to view content for free. The metered paywall has worked successfully for traditional media outlets, most notably The New York Times, but has not been attempted by new media sites like Huffington Post or BuzzFeed yet.The big question is “will it work?” and how will Business Insider measure its success. Will success mean the perfect ratio between subscription income, advertising and sponsorship revenue, and affiliate revenue, or will success be measured by unique website visitors or time on page? The answer is likely to be a combination. Business Insider has the fourth largest audience of a digital news site, so other new media publishers will be looking to Business Insider to develop a hybrid model that works.~ Dana E. Neuts, Subscription InsiderPOST UPDATED 12/17/15, 2:36 p.m. EST, last two paragraphs added