• by Melynda Fuller , April 24, 2018

In an effort to build a community of subscribers among its digital audience, Vanity Fair launched a metered paywall today.

After reading three free articles in a month, visitors will be asked to subscribe to the publication for $19.99 a year. The first three months of subscription are free.

Subscribers gain full access to the monthly print and digital issues, an exclusive newsletter and access to a new digital series of archive collections. 

The archives include topics “ranging from true crime to international affairs to the making of Star Wars,” according to editor in chief Radhika Jones’ letter on the publication’s site.

The publication plans to offer new subscriber benefits in the near future.

Current subscribers can link their account to the new pay-walled site, gaining instant access.

Jones stated: “At a moment when quality journalism is not a luxury, but a necessity, your commitment will enable us to invest in our reporting, writing, photography and video, expanding into new areas and onto new platforms, with you, our core reader and viewer, clearly in focus. We cannot do it without you.” 

The pay wall was first discussed in spring of last year, when then EIC Graydon Carter stated he wanted to erect it by year’s end. However, Carter stepped down from that post in winter of 2018 after 25 years and Jones took his place.