First, thank you for being a reader of SSIR. As you may have noticed, we have made a few changes to our website. In short, we've revamped our paywall so that non-subscribers are able to read a limited number of articles each month before they are prompted to create a free account and then, eventually, required to upgrade to a paid subscription.
We believe this is the best way to balance our mission to spread social innovation knowledge as widely as possible with our need as a nonprofit media organization to generate a sustainable amount of subscription revenue. If you're already a subscriber, thank you so much for your vital support. If you're not, please consider subscribing to help us continue to support the incredible global community of social change leaders.
What follows is a somewhat longer explanation of these changes and our thinking.
What Are We Doing?
Starting today, we are instituting a metered paywall on SSIR's website. For many readers who only occasionally visit SSIR, not much will change; you will be able to read a limited number of articles for free each month. After that, you'll need to sign up for a free account to continue reading. To be transparent, this means we'll be able to send those readers our weekly newsletter and other occasional emails—adding more engaged readers to that list helps us promote our events and makes our newsletter more attractive to advertisers. Having readers signed in to free accounts will also help us better understand reader traffic across the site and what articles are most valuable. Eventually, if a reader continues to access more articles within the same 30-day period, a paid subscription will be required.
Notably, this means that many previously locked articles, including most of our print magazine articles from the last two decades, will now be open to readers who have not used up their monthly free articles.
The other major change we're making is we are increasing our subscription prices to keep in line with the market. We've always intended to keep SSIR affordable, and we haven't raised our prices in years, despite significant cost increases. We've updated our subscription options to include a new monthly digital-only option to offer some flexibility for those who can't commit to the cost of a full annual subscription.
Why Are We Doing This?
Most of our readers are likely well aware of the many challenges facing media and journalism businesses, and we don't need to rehearse those here. Although SSIR is published at Stanford University, we are a nonprofit media organization, and we primarily rely on earned income to fund our work. In the 23 years since we were founded, our business model has evolved to depend on a mix of subscriptions, events, webinars, sponsorships, advertising, and a small amount of philanthropic support. As mentioned above, we believe a metered paywall is the best way to strike a balance between keeping SSIR open and accessible and nudging our regular readers who can afford it toward subscribing. We hope those who rely on the work we publish and produce, who appreciate our high standards, and especially those who work in and support the social sector—and who understand that nothing is ever truly free—will continue to support us.
We also believe subscriptions are the most sustainable way for us to fund SSIR's future and to make sure our small team can focus on best serving the social change community with rigorous, editorially independent work. We want to spend as much time as possible collaborating with our contributors on great ideas and as little time as possible worrying about how to make or raise more money.
How Will This Affect Readers?
If you're already a subscriber, you shouldn't notice much difference. You’ll still enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish, and our new account tools make it easier for you to log in and manage your subscription online. You should have received an email from us with a link and instructions for activating your existing subscription in the new system.
If you're not a subscriber, you may encounter a little more friction as you navigate the site. We hope you'll consider at least signing up for a free account so you can read the site more freely and get our weekly newsletter where we've been publishing some exclusive Q&As with SSIR contributors in addition to the usual digest of new articles. Ultimately, it's paid subscriptions that help us continue our work.
If you want to support SSIR further, we've made it easier to buy a gift subscription for a friend or colleague. We've also revamped our group subscription options, which are a great way to give your entire organization access to SSIR at steeply discounted rates.
What Next?
We are instituting this system out of optimism. In the more than two decades since SSIR was founded, virtually everything in media, governance, society, and the world of social innovation has been called into question, if not undergone fundamental disruption. Yet we are still here, learning, growing, and adapting along with our inspiring community of readers.
We hope you’ll be here with us for the next two decades, and more.
If you have questions about this transition or feedback on how we can best serve your needs as a reader, please reach out to [email protected].
Read more stories by Bryan Maygers.