Mic, the digital news outlet by millennials for millennials, is planning to experiment with paid video subscriptions, reports Ad Age. With a monthly audience of more than 30 million readers, perhaps the time is right for just such an experiment. According to Ad Age, Mic is looking at trying video subscriptions rather than trying a paywall for written content.
“Unfortunately, the market value for text-written news is not incredibly high right now…due to the volume being produced,” says Mic CEO Chris Altchek.
Currently, Mic is funded through advertising dollars for branded content and the company’s Hero ad unit. According to Altchek, that segment of the business is going well. In the first four months of 2016, they have already booked more ads and content than they did for all of 2015.
Adding a subscription element would provide a more reliable recurring source of revenue for Mic. On Medium recently, Altchek said there is more money in digital publishing than ever before, so he is optimistic about the future, despite the reorganizing of and staff cuts at digital publishers like the Huffington Post, the Guardian and Gawker.
“Those who manage the current transition, build audience, and produce great journalism will thrive in the long run,” Altchek writes.
He is particularly optimistic about video with which Mic has experienced success both on YouTube and on its own site. In fact, one recent video about gender confirmation surgery published in late April attracted 56 million viewers in a week.
“The business model is not yet finalized, but I’m very confident that the reach and format will be very compelling for advertisers,” says Altchek on Medium.
Altchek says Mic regularly experiments with new ideas, generally testing them for anywhere from six weeks to six months.
“Short-form video and Google AMP are examples of experiments that turned into core initiatives quickly. 360-degree video showed promise, but lacked real product market fit today. Bots, newsletters, Facebook Live and SMS are in progress. Some will work, and some will not, but Mic gets smarter after each experiment,” says Altchek.
Insider Take:
Built by millennials, Mic knows its audience well and how to best engage with that audience. It also knows that innovation and risk are critical to their long-term success, and they are going about testing in a deliberate, intelligent way.
Based on past experiments, it looks like Mic will test video subscriptions on a trial basis to see what the demand is and then tweak their offerings along the way. This is similar to what Cheddar, another millennial-focused company, is doing. They started offering video content for free, and after making a name for themselves, they moved to a video subscription model to leverage and fund their future.
These innovative companies will blaze the trail for other companies who want to test the video platform which might eventually become the norm rather than the exception.
