Rolling Stone To Put Entire Archive Online For A Fee

Rolling Stone Magazine is about to venture into a territory that will have all publications and business strategists closely keeping an eye on them. They’re about to put every single element of every issue printed since 1967 online. Instead of just reading the news and teasers on the site, every single story written in their print publication will soon become digital. Album reviews will even have clips to listen to. However, as great as this all is for fans of the magazine, it does come with a fee. It’s not much, but we do wonder where they think they’ll be going with this business plan.

Readers can now see what Rolling Stone has put their blood, sweat and tears into during the past 43 years, but it will cost $3.95 a month or #29.99 for a yearly rate. It’s not much when you think about everything else we pay to subscribe to. However, this “pay wall” will be interesting to watch over the next few years or however long they decide to test this out.

Advertising online will never be as profitable as it is in print magazines as we’ve realized before, so why are they taking such a big step into the digital market? Is it because people have been giving them flak for depending too much on pop culture rather than the politics and music? Are they just mainly trying to compete with the other online magazines currently out there right now?

The Associated Press did an excellent job at pointing out how their online viewership pales in comparisons to music websites such as Pitchfork or Stereogum who focus on new music every day. Rolling Stone‘s site didn’t do horrible in a monetary aspect. They pulled in 1.3 million unique visitors with 9 million page views in March. However, it doesn’t sound as good when compared to Pitchfork’s pull that clocks in only 1.3 million unique visitors in March but only 9 million page views.

So is their full on need to be extra web-savvy a cry for help? Steven Schwartz, the chief digital officer for the magazine’s parent company, Wenner Media, says no:

“We’re taking control of our digital destiny [...]This is not, let’s rush to the Web because print isn’t strong. This is our brand’s ability to tap into a new medium.”

It sounds like a logical reason to go head first into such a big step, but how much time and money are they putting into this new opportunity? Schwartz answered the AP with a vague statement as such: “There is a commitment to it and it is growing with the launch of the new site.”

It’ll be nice to go back in history with just a thumbnail click away, but we’re curious to see if any other prominent magazines such as Spin will follow in their footsteps. The new Rolling Stone restaurant and club located in Hollywood is also expected to open this summer. Will all of this pay off?

Will you be buying a subscription to Rolling Stone‘s archive?