A visit to the Cheltenham Science Festival this weekend was instructive in how newspapers aim to leverage reader loyalty, and how The Times is playing its pre-paywall push…
The paper was the festival’s headline sponsor, and Times marketing operatives with clipboards were out in force, enlisting visitors milling around Imperial Square in the sun with trial Times+ website memberships.
To what end? Well, the event gave a glimpse at the privileged life a Times reader might enjoy after signing up. That includes putting one’s feet up at the makeshift Times Cafe, inside of which card-carrying Times+ members received free tea and coffee, while the rest of us dipped in to our pockets…
That’s a curious play on the pitch that the Times websites will cost “the price of a cup of coffee”.
Embarrassed by the social disparity? Well, an adjacent plinth was on hand to take your free website registration, before the site goes paid-only later this month…
And take away a Times+ notebook, pen and poster in your tote bag for good measure…
The whole thing was tied together nicely with frequent panel discussions, hosted by reporters from The Times’ Eureka science supplement, also in The Times Cafe…
This is the newspaper as club.
It was a good market for The Times. Well-heeled Cheltenhamites wearing Panama hats are ideal targets – and if Times Newspapers can make enough of them feel loved with freebies, events and discounted tickets, it may yet encourage enough of them to show loyalty by subscribing.