Slovak online media subscription meets success

It’s an uncommon headline, but an online news source is boasting promising financial prospects. A Slovak media subscription payment system launched in May announced last week that during its first month it netted over €40,000 in revenue, the largest amount yet earned through publication subscription on the Slovak internet.

As editor Jeremy Druker reported in TOL’s editor blog, the Slovak “Piano” system works similarly to cable in that one payment grants access to multiple channels. A flat fee of €2.90 per month provides subscribers with access to 34 sections and services on 9 internet sites.

If anyone could make the system work, wrote Druker, it was Piano Media’s CEO Tomas Bella.

Well, one month in, it looks like he’s played his part.

“We achieved our subscriber target within two days of launching the system. So it is clear that the common payment system has had only a very small, or no impact on readership,” said Bella, according to a description on Piano Media’s website.

Take note, NYTimes. With online subscriptions appearing to be the hopeful lifesource for faltering news sources, maybe Slovakia’s onto something.