It’s long overdue and finally available from our local digital magazine app. A subscription feature has been introduced by PhaseDev’s Wayang Force. It allows subscribers to pay one time only, whether it’s for a month, 3 months, 6 months, or even a year. The price is definitely cheaper than single issue. It rolls out in iOS version and the other platforms will follow.

There are eight magazines (mostly come from Megindo which has affiliation with Wayang Force) and one newspaper that can be subscribed. To be able to subscribe, one user needs to login/register first. It may be the first local service to provide this feature.

The idea of subscription is well known to offline publishing. By offering cheaper price, publisher is hoping to get loyal customers for longer term. In real world, the subscription implementation in digital platform is not that easy. Especially in Indonesia, the online market is niche and purely experimental. But if some in this niche market eager to pay hefty price for Harvard Business Review or TIME annual online subscription, the same person may be willing to subscribe for local contents. Just give a shot and look at the result.

We need such service and it’s unavoidable. One media pioneer, Kompas, has already started it with its Kompas e-Paper. I don’t know about Kompas e-Paper’s result so far, but to nurture the environment to follow this move will be everybody’s works, including media companies. If they are willing to switch to digital version then they should create campaign on it and make it easier for loyal customers to catch up. Even better, give them more privileges.

For example, TIME gives its offline subscribers to access online contents for free. That means now subscribers has choices, whether to access it via online or offline, and it’s a good thing. You don’t have to pay double to access both. Customer is happy, publisher gets more to offer to raise this number.

I really hope that our local publisher will follow this online subscription method, so there will be more and more subscribers moving towards online subscription. Less papers used to print the media means one little donation for our mother nature.