Great questions! Let's break these down...
What
1. What is Global News?
Global News is a demo site to show how you could read paywalled content without having to pay for a subscription. It is NOT a real news site and the articles are NOT real news.
2. What is StreemPay?
StreemPay is a startup working to build a new way for readers to pay for online content that doesn't require committing to a subscription. Instead, you can now pay for what you consume.
3. What is pay-as-you-read?
Pay-as-you-read is a new way to consume and pay for your favorite digital news and magazine articles. Instead of paying to access an article, like with a subscription or micropayments, you pay for what you consume, even if half an article! It's the fairest and most flexible way to pay for content.
4. What do I get with a StreemPay account?
Once you sign up for a StreemPay account (including through Global News) you will have a free StreemPay account for life. This will give you access, when we launch, to all the publishers and content providers that we are working with right now.
Oh, and to thank you for your early support, we are giving $20 credit to everyone who joins our waitlist or signs up for a pre-launch account through Global News!
5. What do I do once I've signed up?
Tell your friends and favorite sites about StreemPay, of course! You can also follow us on Twitter. At some point, we'll then get in touch to give you early access to our publishers.
Once we launch, you can use StreemPay seamlessly just by clicking on an article. During the month you can track your spending and what you've been reading on your own dashboard, and at the end of the month you'll receive one credit card charge for everything you've consumed. Simple!
6. What do you do with my email address and credit card?
Your email address is how you will access your account. We will also use it to let you know when we launch.
We safely store your credit card details (with Stripe) for two reasons: so we can show publishers that people are willing to pay as they read, and so that when we launch you're all set and ready to go!
Don't worry, though, you won't be charged for anything you read on Global News. It's just a demo site!
7. What happens if I spend too much?
We have two ways to prevent accidental overspend:
One is that publishers will put in spending caps, so you never spend more than a certain amount per month. With Global News it is $5. Give it a try and read a few articles to see what happens when you hit the limit (hint: it all becomes free!)
The other is that you can set your own spending notifications, either for your whole account, or for a specific site, so we can let you know if/when you start to reach your limits.
8. What is going on with these articles??
Ha, yeah, we used a few AI writing sites to generate them. They can get pretty funky! Just to reiterate though, these are not real news articles!
Why
1. Why are you building StreemPay?
Probably like you, we were feeling a lot of pain trying to read articles online that we were interested in or that we found through friends or social media. We were hitting paywalls all the time and increasingly frustrated by this.
When we looked into it, we learned that most publishers are in dire straits due to a significant decline in ad revenues in the last 10-15 years. This has led to a number of serious issues. We believe that a strong society needs strong journalism, and so wanted to find a solution that would work for both readers and publishers.
2. Why would I want to pay as I read?
It's a quick and easy alternative way to pay for content. It's not by any means a replacement for subscriptions. We think subscriptions are an important payment mechanism and have their place.
But readers need more than one way to pay, and pay-as-you-read gives you the flexibility to access content you want without having to commit to a subscription on every site you visit. Instead, you can save your hard-earned money to subscribe to those sites you visit most frequently.
3. Why would publishers want to use StreemPay?
There are a number of compelling reasons for publishers to consider using StreemPay as a complementary system to support their subscription model.
- It generates extra revenue from casual readers
- It generates highly-qualified leads
- It increases traffic and therefore boosts ad revenue
- It provides interesting new data on monetization
- It's low risk and low cost to roll out
If you are or represent a publisher and want to learn more, take a look at our site, our blog, or best of all schedule a 15-min demo and we can show you how it works on the business side and answer any questions.
When
1. When and where can I use this?
We're working hard to bring you some great publications soon, so hang tight! In the meantime, do sign up for an account here on Global News or join our waitlist so we can let you know when we launch.
The more people we have waiting, the more publishers we can persuade to trying using StreemPay.
2. When can I set up a call to learn more and get a demo?
Right now! Feel free to drop your email here and we'll get back to you asap.
Follow us on Twitter @StreemPay