Author
Andy Watson
Please check out latest news, expert comments and industry insights from Coinspeaker's contributors.
Time Inc’s brands like Fortune, Health, This Old House and Travel + Leisure now accepting bitcoin payments for subscriptions.
Time Inc. has just partnered with Coinbase, one of the world’s most popular bitcoin wallet, to become the first major magazine publisher to accept bitcoin payments, according to the press release.
The initiative launched today with Fortune, Health, This Old House and Travel + Leisure, now accepting bitcoin among the wide variety of payment options for subscriptions.
“We are always looking for ways to make it easier for consumers to engage with our brands and this pilot program will give bitcoin users a seamless and simple way to purchase subscriptions,” said Lynne Biggar, Executive Vice President, Consumer Marketing + Revenue, Time Inc.”We hope to expand our partnership with Coinbase in the coming months to create more opportunities to provide greater value to our customers.”
Beginning today, anyone with a Coinbase wallet can use bitcoin to purchase subscriptions to Fortune, Health, This Old House and Travel + Leisure.
Consumers can now use bitcoin to buy subscriptions of @fortunemagazine, @goodhealth, @TravlandLeisure & @ThisOldHouse http://t.co/AVe9K9myTj
— Time Inc. (@TimeInc) December 16, 2014
Time Inc. joins a growing list of businesses, such as Overstock.com, Google and Expedia, partnering with Coinbase to integrate bitcoin into their customer payment options.
“For a major publisher like Time Inc. to embrace bitcoin sends an important message to both its readers and to the broader media community,” added Brian Armstrong, CEO & co-founder of Coinbase. “In addition to providing consumers with an easy, convenient way to pay for their subscriptions, it also opens the door for Time Inc. and publishers like it to familiarize themselves with the Bitcoin technology and explore new applications across the industry.”
Time Inc. is one of the world’s leading media companies reaching more than 130 million consumers each month across multiple platforms. Its influential brands include People, Sports Illustrated, InStyle, Time, Real Simple, Southern Living, Entertainment Weekly, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Fortune and many others.
As of September 30, 2014, Time Inc. operated approximately 40 websites that collectively have over 100 million average monthly unique visitors around the world. The company also operates integrated publishing businesses that provide content marketing, targeted advertising programs, branded book publishing and marketing and support services.
Although Bitcoin will probably not solve the magazine industry’s wider problems, including declining subscriptions and sliding ad revenue, Time Inc.’s decision is obviously already generating publicity.
