We are very excited to announce that DrydenWire Insider launched Wednesday, August 24, 2022 after months of testing. We have had this in development for quite some time and announced this transition back in early June. You can subscribe to the insider by following this link here.
Below are FAQs regarding our Insider.
What is DrydenWire Insider?
The DrydenWire Insider is our premium content subscription service, with additional benefits.
What are the benefits of being an Insider?
Subscribers to the DrydenWire Insider first, and perhaps most importantly, have access to our premium original content. To view examples of what these are, simply head to DrydenWire.com and click on the "Insider" tab (if on mobile, first click the 4 vertical lines on the top right in the header to access our menu and then select "Insider."
Secondly —which will excite many of our readers — subscribers to the Insider will have a Google Ad-free experience. Google Ads represent 20% of our revenue, however, they are the most requested to be removed functionality of our website. We have little control over Google Ads, but these are the intrusive ads in the middle of every article and our obituaries. Logged-in subscribers to the Insider will never see these again.
Are obituaries still free?
Yes. DrydenWire remains the only media outlet in our area that does not charge to submit an obituary nor charge to view an obituary. In our view doing so would be wrong. We do have Google Ads placed on the obituaries. So a DrydenWire Insider logged-in subscriber will no longer see those ads.
What is the cost of an Insider subscription?
Something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. For obvious reasons, we believe that what we provide has a high value. When looking at area news outlets - some charging as much as nearly $7/month for digital only - we feel as though that is too high a price to charge for any content for our northwest Wisconsin readers. Therefore, we are offering 2 options: $5/month or $50/year. The latter of which would reduce the monthly average to just over $4/month or just .96 cents/week.
Will there be future benefits of being an Insider?
Yes. The launch of our DrydenWire Insider is incorporating the aforementioned. This is Phase 1. Phase 2 is already in development which may bring a commenting section, newsletter, and more — but for right now, we are focused on Phase 1.
Why now?
This October will mark 7 years since DrydenWire first launched. We’ve always known that we would have to start charging for certain content, in order to be sustainable and for growth.
We were originally planning on launching this after year 5, but due to COVID, and the hardships that we were all facing in every walk of life in Northwest Wisconsin, it didn’t seem to be the right thing to do. It would have probably been the smart thing to do, but the wrong thing to do.
Revenue generated from our subscribers will provide the necessary resources for our sustainability as well as the ability to hire additional staff to cover more local news. To be clear, we are not looking to expand into other areas, rather, to provide more news and information to the counties that we currently cover.
All the best,
DrydenWire
Last Update: Aug 31, 2022 10:15 am CDT
