Single item sale via cell phone bill
The latest addition to Axel Springer's payment models from provider SwissPay.ch lets Bilanz readers choose between advertising spot or payment.
Readers of Bilanz can now purchase articles from the print edition individually on Bilanz.de and pay for them with just two clicks via their mobile phone bill. The business magazine is testing a model from Swiss provider SwissPay.ch that offers users two options for purchasing articles: Either the reader watches an approximately 15-second commercial or pays an amount starting at 0.99 euros. To process the payment, he only has to enter his cell phone number once, and the amount then simply appears on the next cell phone bill.
Klaus Boldt, Editor-in-Chief of Bilanz: "Until now, we have only distributed our magazine digitally as an e-paper. From now on, we are also providing access to individual articles from the current issue. And in a radically simple and user-friendly way."
The new approach is the latest addition to the wide range of payment models and monetization strategies in use at Axel Springer's brands. It applies only to articles in the print edition that are made available on Bilanz.de. "We expect a lot from this decidedly innovative system. But we will of course have to test it intensively in the coming months before we decide whether it meets our requirements and whether we will use it permanently," says Boldt. The online content produced exclusively for Bilanz.de, such as the columns and video sections by Bilanz contributors, will remain accessible unchanged.
