Given the drop in traffic across the industry, Time might have experienced a steeper decline had it not removed its paywall. This year, many publishers would consider maintaining their historical readership figures a win.
“The timing of the paywall drop happened to correspond to industry-wide declines in traffic, which is one of those macro things you cannot control,” said Time chief operating officer Mark Howard. “Our decision has resonated with our partners, who work with us in multiple capacities and surfaces, not just the website.”
According to Danczak, these figures are to be expected. When a publisher implements a paywall, it can expect traffic to drop. But when it removes a paywall, its traffic could take years to rebound, as it takes time for consumers to realize that the publisher has made its content available.
According to Sibley, Time also made its decision because the subscription business was not working for it.
When it removed the paywall, the media publisher had roughly 55,000 paying digital subscribers to Time.com, which have since disappeared. (This is not inclusive of bundled subscribers or Apple News+ revenue.) It still has around 1.1 million paying print subscribers.
Time saw a bump in subscribers during the pandemic but ultimately made the decision to focus on working with advertisers rather than orient its business around consumer revenue. Concerns over rising churn rates and worries about “peak subscription” further motivated the decision.
The publisher now characterizes itself as a business-to-business media company on the basis that its core clientele—advertisers—are businesses, according to Sibley. This positioning overlooks the fact that Time attracts a general-interest readership rather than a professional one. Still, it reflects the broader shift in strategy to which the publisher has pinned its fortunes.
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Replacing subs with ads
By lowering its paywall and casting itself as a premium brand, Time has sought to expand its direct advertising and sponsorship business to such a degree that it compensates for the loss of its digital subscription business.
The company declined to offer financial specifics, such as the size of its overall revenue or its sunset subscription business; however, it did share that advertising revenue has risen 14% year over year.