The content payment system which signed up many of Slovakia’s leading publishers in 2011 is now adding two more.
The Piano Media platform is adding…
- Petit Press’ regional Korzar newspaper
- SpoloÄnosÅ¥ 7 Plus’ plus7dni site, Plus 1 Deň daily newspaper and Pluska website
- The Rock’s Slovak Spectator, an English-language news weekly magazine
The additions mean Piano now facilitates content payments for 12 Slovak publishers, including 50 sites. Readers pay €2.90 ($4.14/£2.54) per month or €0.99 ($1.41/£0.87) per week to access the whole lot, like with a cable TV subscription.
But publishers are not yet requiring charges for their entire sites. They are adopting Piano for only a small minority of their content. SpoloÄnosÅ¥, for example, is including only “exclusive articles, interviews, videos, podcasts and special coverage”.
“We do not think putting 100 percent of the content would even be a good idea,” Piano CEO Tomas Bella tells paidContent. “So we are not advising them to do this and no-one is doing it.
They are putting more and more in, but still on the level to be able to keep 100 percent of existing advertising revenues.”
Piano made €40,000 in its first month by June 2011 but has not disclosed figures since. It has since found funding and expanded to Slovenia.