UK ‘Times’ Launches Educational Subscription Site for Kids

In order to stay relevant and solvent, newspapers are taking to diversifying their revenue streams through more than just advertising and circulation. Just this

In order to stay relevant and solvent, newspapers are taking to diversifying their revenue streams through more than just advertising and circulation. Just this past year, Subscription Site Central has featured new ventures from The Christian Science Monitor’s foray into B2B publishing, The Toronto Star’s line of eBooks, and Politico’s premium real-time Blackberry service.Now, The (UK) Times is the latest to join this gang of mission-creeping revenue generators with their launch of Times Tutorials, a subscription tutorial service designed to teach the UK National Curriculum for 5- to 16-year-olds. The site offers worksheets and progress reports so busy parents can monitor their child’s progress.The Times is capitalizing on the fact that a recent report found that one in four parents hire a private tutor for their child, and that number jumps to 40% of London parents. In fact, private tutoring is a £6 billion a year industry.Subscriptions are priced at £8/month, £64/year for one subject; or £12/month, £96/year for all subjects (Maths, Science, English). There’s also a £1, 14-day trial.The site is already observing some best practices, such as having a clean design and a carousel that promotes the paid trial. Plus, it allows parents and students to login in separately. Having separate logins for shared accounts is often a user experience element that many subscription sites fail to incorporate into their initial designs.My only recommendation is that they make their trial conversion button red instead of their login buttons. Converted members will take the time to find a login button, but prospects shouldn’t have to.

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