image from journalismonline.com

Journalism Online, a startup poised as the industry's digital testing ground for paid content, brought its 1,000th publisher on board in mid-September. Once launched, the site will offer the vast majority of these publishers' stories to consumers for free, and place a small minority behind some sort of limited pay wall.

On Monday, Poynter writer Dorian Benkoil took a long look at Journalism Online's business model, and suggests that the site could play a key learning role for publishers, rather than serve as the final answer:

Journalism Online will recommend that [the content providers] use technology provided by the company to figure out who the casual visitors are and who are the more loyal, engaged ones -- those willing to pay ... The hope is that affiliates will use the tools to optimize their publishing and technology and boost the proportion of loyal, paying fans from 5 to perhaps 10 or even 15 percent.

Jumping onto the Journalism Online bandwagon involves little risk for publishers (the site makes money by taking a 20% revenue cut) but Benkoil accurately notes that the model will work far better with some member publications (resource papers like the WSJ) than others.

Regardless, Journalism Online should serve as an interesting trial for curious media men. Read Benkoil's story on poynter.org.