Editor’s note: Atlantic Media publishes a weekly newsletter I like. It’s called The Idea and it’s about “everything new and innovative in the media industry.” You should subscribe!
This week’s edition featured a Q&A with Ben Cotton, executive director of retention and customer experience at The New York Times, in which they discussed a couple projects we’ve covered here that help explain how the Times is thinking about its subscribers these days.
Here’s an expanded version of that Q&A, which will be of interest to anyone thinking about subscription or membership models.
Last week, The New York Times launched its newest podcast, Caliphate, which gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Rukmini Callimachi’s ISIS reporting. The Times is giving subscribers early access to podcast episodes — one week, to be exact. The Washington Post is also developing subscriber-exclusive content, including a new article format reserved for only subscribers, a subscriber-only…
