LinkedIn wants to expand the number of individuals who pay for premium membership, and it believes that allowing access to paywalled content from premium publishers might contribute.
According to sources the Microsoft–owned social network discreetly started a trial initiative called LinkedIn Premium News last month, which provides LinkedIn Premium members enhanced access to content published by sites that employ Piano’s paywall technology.
Piano, one of the leading paywall providers in the media, has clients such as Gannett, Axel Springer, and Le Parisien, as well as Digiday Media.
This pilot program provides LinkedIn Premium users with five credits per month that they may spend to open paywalled material they find on LinkedIn and view on publisher websites.
For those publishers who choose to participate, LinkedIn plans to offer them a steady stream of highly qualified leads for their own subscription products in exchange for more access to paywalled coverage.
LinkedIn will not take part in any subscription revenue generated by the leads created by the pilot program.
A LinkedIn spokesperson commented –
( The program) aligns with our efforts to help publishers reach the right audience and build a community around their content. (The project is intended) to drive value for members and publishers on and off LinkedIn
Over the last few years, publishers have been increasingly cautious of platforms. However, a small percentage of publishers say LinkedIn has a significant impact on their businesses, despite the fact that its overall impact on the publishing landscape is minor; according to Parsely data, LinkedIn is currently outside the top ten sources of referral traffic to publishers’ websites.
