A handful of publishers are participating in a new Google experiment to give users ad-free experiences in exchange for a nominal monthly subscription. The new paywall alternative, called Contributor by Google, launched today with 10 publisher partners, including Mashable, The Onion, Urban Dictionary, WikiHow and Imgur.
Available by invite now, users who sign up can determine how much they want to pay — from $1.00 to $3.00 per month– for the privilege of seeing participating websites without Google ads. Users will see a thank you message or pixelated spaces where Google ads would typically appear. Part of the users’ monthly contribution goes to the publisher sites they visit, and Google takes a cut.
A Google spokesperson told Gigaom, which first reported the product launch, that Contributor is, like Google Consumer Surveys, another example of the company helping publishers monetize their readership.
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