If readers won’t pay for content, will they for community? That’s what Patrick suggested last week. And Pluck’s European chief Pluck‘s European chief Stephanie Himoff tells paidContent:UK: “I see it as an opportunity.”
Pluck already powers story commenting for publishers like Times Online, Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) and Guardian.co.uk; so how about charging for chat? “Every audience is a community waiting to happen. We’re talking with The Times as they have discussions about moving to the paywall.” Does that mean the paper will charge for social or commenting features? “That hasn’t been decided yet.”
Himoff goes on: “The British Medical Journal is using a set of tools on Doc2Doc, a professional community made for 53,000 registered GPs in this country, and we power Which?, which came up with the notion of member-generated content – to see the members reviews, you have to pay.”
Certainly, it would seem hard to charge for one big newspaper-wide community (say, putting My Telegraph, My Sun or Comment Is Free behind the wall), but, if newspapers can delineate specialist parts of their portfolios as professional publishers have, there may be mileage in the idea.
Looking ahead to next year, Himoff – Pluck’s continental sales and biz dev VP – also wants to target regional news publishers she says are now looking toward hyperlocal community sites. Pluck also powers Trinity’s Local Mole user business reviews directory.