Yor One Survey Question [LWN.net]

Yor One Survey Question

Posted Aug 6, 2002 21:46 UTC (Tue) by taruntius (guest, #1140)
Parent article: Is it really The End?

I have no problem subscribing to LWN in order to help LWN continue to exist. The top reasons why I read LWN and why it has value to me are:
* LWN does an excellent job of aggregating linux news from all over
* LWN provides intelligent editorial commentary on that news
* LWN provides timely and _trustworthy_ reports on security vulnerabilities
* LWN makes it easy for me to stay current on the status of kernel development in an easy once-weekly gulp.

In short, LWN saves me uncountable hours (hours which I don't have) in finding, collecting, and analyzing that information for myself. LWN allows me to be a decent sysadmin for the web/mail site I run without turning that into a second full-time job. I would simply be unable to run my site competently without LWN because I don't have time to do the research that would otherwise involve for myself. It should come as no surprise that I'm willing to pay for that value.

I think you have the right idea in charging for the current weekly edition while allowing the previous weeks' editions to become free. That's a good model that works well for people who have a serious need to be ultra-current on the news as well as people who are willing to trade some extra time for reduced cost.

Clearly, LWN needs to find the point on the "price-vs-num_subscribers" curve which maximizes your revenue. I fully agree with everyone who says you should conduct a survey first, and I think it needs to be exactly one question long: "What do you think is a _fair_ price for a 1-year LWN subscription?" Take a histogram of the responses and you'll have a pretty good idea what your subscription price should be, and based on that, whether you also need to sell sponsorships, etc.

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