Arts magazine Wound has launched an iPhone optimised mag form—and claims to be the first publisher to put out print, digital and iPhone versions. But none of it is free: the quarterly print title is subscription-only at £7; the digital edition is £5 while the iPhone version will set you back £3 from iTunes.
This doesn’t quite follow the (Chris Anderson – Wired) Freemium model – there’s no free offering, which may be a mistake. I think, like Gerd Leonhard that on the internet, content needs to be free (gratis) to ensure that its free (libre). If its free (libre), you can drive up audience numbers as there’s no barrier to entry with engagement of your content. If 10% would pay for a premium offering, then 10% of loads of people who already experience your free (gratis) content is better than a few people who already know your product and are prepared to pay! I’m sure that we’ll see this freemium model rolled out from the Brooklyn Museum soon. They’ve launched their free iPhone app (I blogged about that here) . They surely have enough online fans to begin the freemium experiment: its worked with a premium Twitter streams that their 1st fans members effectively pay for. Would you pay without being given a taster first?