The Atlantic Targets Students With New Group Subscription

The publisher declined to say how much it charges for the product, or how much revenue it generates. A representative assured ADWEEK that the business is small but growing.

The program also serves as a test run for a more standard enterprise subscription product—targeting companies, think tanks, nonprofits, etc.—that the company plans to roll out more heavily in the second half of the year.

However, the true value of academic subscription products comes from the audience they offer rather than the immediate revenue they generate, according to Danczak. 

Students develop many of their consumption habits in college, meaning their lifetime value as subscribers is just beginning. And rather than The Atlantic spending money to reach students, the universities are paying The Atlantic, meaning its customer acquisition costs are nearly nil.

Retention challenges and attribution questions

As with all subscriptions, it is incumbent upon the publisher to prove the value of its product to the customer.

In the case of academic subscriptions, however, the dynamic is complicated by the fact that while the universities pick up the tab, it is the student body that The Atlantic must convince to use its product.

The publisher declined to share usage figures, as it has yet to determine benchmarks and appropriate metrics for measuring engagement. McCurdy did say, however, that some of its highest-performing schools see up to 30% of their student population use the subscription.

The publisher has weighed and implemented a number of techniques aimed at bolstering student readership, according to McCurdy. 

To ensure the schools see the value and renew their contracts, The Atlantic has toyed with ambassador programs, partnerships with student newspapers and even passing out flyers. These programs would potentially add reach beyond the company’s Democracy at a Crossroads tour.

The publisher also faces unique challenges related to data and attribution, as students signing up for access to The Atlantic must use a university email, which then disappears when they graduate. 

“We want to be sensitive because the students are minors,” McCurdy said. “But we know this is a strong growth channel, one that will help us get to 1.5 million subscribers.”