An experiment: Launching monthly memberships during the Covid-19 consumer crisis

Making The New Consumer more accessible.

Update: After six months of experimenting with a monthly membership option, as of Sept. 28, 2020, I’ve switched to quarterly in addition to the classic annual. (As a result, I’ve removed the links below to purchase monthly memberships.) I’ll explain why in a future post, which I’ll link to from here.

Previously: If the past week is any indication, the next month is going to be unimaginably crazy. I am committed to covering the ongoing consumer crisis and response as the world creatively fights the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Seeing how hard things are getting for many businesses, I’m launching a bit of an experiment today to make The New Consumer more accessible for anyone who can benefit from my research and analysis. (As a brief introduction, I cover how and why people spend their money, for a community of many of the top consumer, tech, and media executives and investors. More here.)

Through April 15, I’m offering a new monthly membership, which costs $20 per month (USD) and renews automatically.

This monthly membership includes many of the same benefits as annual membership, including access to my twice-weekly newsletter via email and the web, and instant access to my full Executive Briefing archive on the web.

I’ll be focusing largely on the consumer crisis for the foreseeable future, highlighting what’s working (and what’s not), and analyzing where things are going next. As always, I’ll focus on the most interesting and innovative companies, people, products, and trends.

Why is this an experiment? The New Consumer is a one-person media startup — hi, I’m Dan Frommer — supported entirely by membership.

It’s hard to believe this Saturday, March 21, marks one year since launching this project to the public. As I wrote a few months ago, this is the best job I’ve ever had, and I am excited about the future — this feels precisely like what I should be doing right now and for years to come. (Much more here.) Seeing the drastic impact Covid-19 has had just over the past couple of days has further deepened my commitment to the people and businesses I cover.

But a lot of the confidence I’ve had in this venture — and my ability to take this risk, personally and professionally — has been possible because I’ve only offered annual memberships so far. Beyond the upfront cash flow, it’s helpful to know that this community is as invested in my work as I am.

So, please: If you can, continue to purchase annual memberships — $200 per year — or give those as gifts. This year, I plan to launch new products, including more in-depth research reports and events, that will require annual membership.

I also offer other membership options, including lifetime membership and a group discount for teams, starting at six annual memberships for $1,000 — the price of five. If you routinely share my articles with colleagues, and your business is in good shape, please consider upgrading. More info here.

But if you’re in a tough spot right now, or just want to make sure my work is valuable to you before committing for longer, please feel welcome as a monthly member. I’d love to help however I can.

And for my media-entrepreneur experimentation purposes, I’ll get to learn more about things like churn rate, conversion to annual memberships, and whether I should offer monthly memberships permanently. I hope to provide transparency here for other independent publishers.

Thanks, as always — but especially now! — for your time and support. We’ll get through this together.

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