TechCrunch is
launching a subscription product, offering additional content, coverage, product and events around entrepreneurship and the startup industry to paying members.
"Based on feedback from our
community we understood there was a gap in the market; our audience wanted more. With our unique lens in the tech ecosystem TechCrunch can fill that gap, offering our insight, research, data sets,
special access at events and most importantly the expertise of our renowned journalists," stated Ned Desmond, COO of TechCrunch.
The offering, called “Extra Crunch,” costs $15 per month, or $150 per year. New members get a 30-day free trial.
Extra Crunch is available in the U.S., Canada,
U.K., France, Germany and Spain, but will likely roll out to more countries in Europe later in 2019.
Regular content on TechCrunch.com remains free to readers.
Matthew Panzarino,
TechCrunch
editor in chief, wrote in a post that the team has been “quietly...reconfiguring TechCrunch over the past few years” to focus on readers, “not just
advertisers.”
“While our audience — you folks — is still one many advertisers would love to reach, that’s their job, not ours. Instead, we wanted to re-align all of
our goals around what we saw as the future of sustainable journalism,” Panzarino wrote.
The new product will dive into topics TechCrunch does not regularly tackle, such as
“inclusion and diversity” and “navigating hiring, legal and product decisions,” as well as “mental health and wellness in high-performance environments,” Panzarino
wrote.
Extra Crunch will provide exclusive articles to subscribers, such as profiles on startups “that have achieved late-stage success,” profiles and databases of experts startups
could work with to improve their business, and how-to guides and other resources and recommendations.
Subscribers will also get access to regular live conference calls with TechCrunch staff
and guests, and a 20% discount on tickets to TechCrunch events. They will also get to use the site's “Rapid Read Mode” product, which helps readers skim through stories on the site.
The site will have no banner ads or in video pre-rolls for subscribers.
Leading the Extra Crunch project is TechCrunch Executive Editor Danny Crichton, as well as managing editor Eric Eldon
and director of Audience Development Travis Bernard.
“The plans for Extra Crunch reflect our belief that honest and informative content around building startups doesn't start and stop at
Success Porn or Failure Fascination. There is so much territory to explore in between about how to build and scale sustainably and responsibly,” Panzarino wrote.
TechCrunch and its
sites, which are owned by Verizon Media, reach over 15 million monthly unique visitors.