Slate magazine said that effective Friday it will let readers check out all the stories on its Web site for free.
The move marks a major turnaround for the Microsoft-owned webzine, which surprised the Net publishing industry a year ago when it began charging readers to access most of its stories.
But Slate, which publishes news, political columns, and cultural commentary, says it will get more readers and make more money by going free.
"There is too much free stuff out there, the process of paying and accessing what you paid for is too clumsy and unfamiliar," wrote Slate's editor Michael Kinsley in an email sent to subscribers Friday morning.
So far, most of the content Web sites that have made money on subscriptions sell either pornography or investment advice, said Slate's new publisher, Scott Moore. Some trade publications with well-defined audiences have also stuck with subscription models. Moore replaced former publisher Roger Weed a week ago.
A few publications targeted to a fairly broad audience, like The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, do sell subscriptions to their online editions. But for general news publications like Slate, charging for access is still pretty rare.
Slate had some success charging readers, counting between 25,000 and 30,000 subscribers. Now the magazine is banking on a belief that going free will boost traffic to its Web site and draw in enough extra ad revenue to compensate for a drop in subscription money.
Financial motives aside, the webzine is also looking forward to getting more readers.
"Ten to 15 people visit our free areas every month for each one paying subscriber," Kinsley wrote in the email. "It's painful to think of turning away so many Slate readers from so much of our content."
Even under the new free model, Slate will still charge for some services. For US$19.95 a year, subscribers can get Slate's five email services, its weekly print-out edition, The Fray, and access to The Compost, an archive of all Slate stories. Subscribers can request a refund for the remainder of their subscriptions, or continue their subscriptions and receive an extra six months of paid services, free.
So far, Moore said, response to the new plan has been overwhelmingly positive.
Kinsley also defended the magazine's decision to reverse course, saying it's hard to know what strategy will work in the money-losing world of online publishing.
"Let him or her with a webzine that's breaking even cast the first stone," he wrote.
