Pulse v. Flipboard: Which is Better for Your Subscription Site?

The recent news of the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) deal with Pulse and The New York Times’ (NYT) arrangement with Flipboard gives paid content

The recent news of the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) deal with Pulse and The New York Times’ (NYT) arrangement with Flipboard gives paid content executives new options when considering how they should partner with third-party vendors and maximize profits.In case you missed it, here’s a quick summary of the deals:

WSJ + Pulse: Pulse recently announced its “Premium Sources” feature, through which Pulse users can choose from three different subscription plans for the Wall Street Journal– WSJ Political Report for $3.99 per month, WSJ Technology Digest for $3.99 per month, or WSJ Water Cooler for 99 cents per month. Pulse will be taking a portion of those monthly subscription rates, meaning WSJ will have to split their profits three ways since Apple will take it’s usual 30% (Pulse only runs on Apple devices).
NYT + Flipboard: Flipboard recently got dumped by The New Yorker and Wired, but the Grey Lady has brokered an unusual deal with the social reader (that has 8 million users). Flipboard users can access breaking news for free, and the entire paper with an online subscription. However, Flipboard takes no cut from those subscription revenues. Instead, NYT subscribers will be shown full-page ads (much like full-page magazine ads) when viewing their paid-for content. Flipboard will take a share of the revenues from those ad placements.

To be honest, I have no idea which deal will prove more lucrative — or for whom. The Wall Street Journal is divvying up its revenues a lot, but may benefit from readers who don’t want to subscribe to an entire newspaper’s content and prefer specialized feeds. At the same time, The New York Times is able to sell its content twice — once to subscribers and once to advertisers. It’s the good old fashioned newspaper Model, retrofitted for the digital age.However, the one thing both newspapers have in common that all paid content sites should note is that they are charging for convenience. In the immortal words of Stewart Brand, “Information wants to be expensive. … The right information in the right place just changes your life.”