The Atlantic adds new friends & family subscription plan
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The Atlantic on Tuesday soft launched a new friends and family subscription plan called Premium Plus, its chief growth officer Megha Garibaldi told Axios.
Why it matters: It represents The Atlantic's first new paywall tier since it launched digital subscriptions in 2019.
Zoom in: The new Premium Plus plan, which costs $199 annually, will allow sharing across one paid subscription for up to four accounts.
- Each account linked to the plan will have its own login credentials and the ability for personalization.
- In addition to the shared access, the primary account holder will get access to a few special perks, including a keepsake coffee-table book and a new tote bag.
Zoom out: The Atlantic's subscriber growth has been a huge part of the company's path to profitability following a challenging transition for many media companies during the pandemic era.
- The company doubled its subscriber base from 700,000 in 2020 to more than 1.4 million by the end of 2025.
- That figure includes subscribers who access The Atlantic's plan through Apple News, as well as a small sliver of newsstand sales.
- It credits new subscription offerings — such as its subscriber-only feed of narrated articles called The Atlantic Out Loud, and virtual subscriber-only events — for helping to supercharge growth.
Between the lines: The friends and family subscription feature was one of the most-requested features by subscribers, Garibaldi said.
- The company hopes the new tier not only increases existing subscriber engagement, but also brings new subscribers into the fold.
- While it has not publicly stated its future subscriber number goals, "we have a very clear milestone in mind that we are marching towards over the next three years," Garibaldi noted. "Strategically, we are rallying around that and figuring out what our pathway looks like to it."
The big picture: Taking a page from the streaming world, more news companies are eyeing subscription bundles and sharing plans as a way to maximize subscriber engagement and grow their paid audiences.
- The New York Times, for example, introduced an All Access Family plan in September.
What to watch: It's unclear how The Atlantic will count the number of new subscribers added to its total with the sharing plan. It will follow the guidance of the Alliance for Audited Media to audit its figures.
