Subscription site Variety – and its print publication – was bought this past Tuesday for $25 million by Penske Media Corp., owned by Internet entrepreneur Jay Penske.The site was initially valued at $50 million by its parent company, Reed Elsevier. But in its heyday, the site turned down $350 million offers.Thus, even though the site has 17,000 paying subscribers, The New York Times called the recent deal a “firesale” and paidContent surmised that the low asking price means that the best price for consumer content is free (even though Variety was seen as an industry insider, not a consumer celebrity mag).However, we think the low selling price may be indicative of other problems and not necessarily reflective of the subscription site industry.For one, Variety is known for having “irritating login errors,” says The New York Times. In addition, the paywall is far from optimized, breaking a number of best practice rules:

1. The paywall has a navigation bar — a big no-no if you actually want to keep visitors on task to conversion and not let them get distracted.
2. The form is oddly long and wide — more narrow columns and less below the fold would convert better.
3. The button copy at the end of the form boringly says “Submit Order” instead of something compelling, like “Get Instant Access.”
4. The site fails to use a specific paywall with a headline that advertises how subscribing gets a visitor access to the content s/he was just trying to view before the paywall popped up.

In short, Variety didn’t invest in the technology and marketing needed to succeed online.So when you read those other stories calling the sale the harbinger of things to come for online paid content, be suspicious. Many other industry publications haven’t bothered to research best practices, but Subscription Site Central is dedicated to finding the bright spots to help online publishers succeed in this changing media landscape.Update (10.11.2012): Rumor now has it that Penske is looking to tear down Variety’s paywall, which is a shame since it never got a viable chance to thrive under optimal conditions. And there’s also juicy news that the brand may expand into India, where Bollywood — and print — are thriving.