Biotech Strategy Blog – the year of the paywall
Today marks a year since we put up a paywall on Biotech Strategy Blog. While we were sorry to have to restrict access in this way, our decision reflects what is happening in the wider digital media arena, it’s simply not possible to go to conferences and generate quality content for free!
It was Warren Buffett who said, “Price is what you pay, value is what you get” and that’s how we feel about charging for access to Premium Content on the blog.
When we put a paywall up on the blog last September, many thought it would not last. All those who bet on its early demise are still waiting 😉
What the paywall has done is create an exclusive club that have access to our insights and analysis. Other traditional media organizations are now following suit, by charging a membership fee for premium access.
There is a wealth of free data on the Internet, and lots of media folk do a good job of sharing or curating this, but raw data is not intelligence, nor do they tell you anything about context or meaning. Insights also require knowledge, expertise and thought to generate.
Journalism and digital media are going through a revolution as those who create original content seek to get paid for it. We are part of that vanguard. So this post is a big thank you for all our subscribers from around the world who have supported our initiative.
Year in Review:
Looking back at this year, we’ve covered remotely or on site 10 conferences or scientific meetings:
- ECCO 2013 (Amsterdam)
- AACR-EORTC-NCI Molecular Targets (Boston)
- World Lung (Sydney)
- ASH 2013 (New Orleans)
- SABCS (San Antonio)
- JPM 2014 (San Francisco)
- ASCO GI (San Franciscso)
- ASCO GU (San Francisco)
- Miami Breast
- AACR 2014 (San Diego)
- AUA 2014 (Orlando)
- ASCO 2014 (Chicago)
Funding from our subscribers enabled us to attend most of these meetings in person. In addition we’ve followed interesting new stories e.g. by going to Paris to interview the senior management of Cellectis about their CAR-T cell therapy.
By my calculation we’ve written approximately 120 premium content posts of the past year, so the cost per post at the current annual rate is about $10. Those who signed up for special offers got them for even less.
So thanks to everyone who has supported us over the past year, we greatly appreciate you being part of the journey with us. We look forward to welcoming new subscribers over the coming year.
For a limited time only (until end of October) we are offering a special anniversary offer where you can lock in your rate for 2 years. Just click on any post and scroll down to sign up in the box under the post.
Check it out!
2 Responses to “Biotech Strategy Blog – the year of the paywall”
Can I trade my expert analysis for access to yours?
Happy anniversary 🙂 Here’s to more success in the years to come. Thank you for your interesting post. Much food for thought.
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