Try before buy: Time Inc. to encourage digital-only subscribers with free previews

Time Inc. is allowing readers to preview several articles in Entertainment Weekly on their iPads before committing to purchase. And Time says that, by the end of this year, all 21 of its titles offered on the Apple Newsstand will allow such previews. The initiative is intended to grow the number of digital-only subscribers, says a posting on All Things Digital.

While Time Inc. has been trailing rival Hearst, which hit one million digital subscriptions earlier this year, Time says it has been adding 10,000 paid digital subscribes a week this  year. 

More than half of those subscribers are new customers, [said George Linardos, head of digital marketing and business development for Time Inc.] And he thinks he can boost that number by giving browsers more to see: “We know we have hundreds of thousands of people downloading the app, opening it, and walking away,” he said. “We want to give them a reason to stay.”