Premium & paywall

Mark a story as Premium and readers without access see the first paragraphs, then the paywall with your plans. Set it up in News. → Premium: paywall on/off, free paragraphs, texts, currency, up to two plans with monthly and yearly prices (the yearly saving is calculated) and a checkout link per plan — or let WooCommerce handle the checkout (below).

Who can read Premium stories:

• editors and administrators;
• users with the Premium subscriber role or a Premium until date (Users → Edit; WooCommerce sets it automatically);
• active WooCommerce Subscriptions subscribers of a Premium product;
• members of a membership plugin connected through the news_has_premium filter.

Premium readers can read without ads (News. → Ads → No ads for Premium readers). The full text of Premium stories is kept out of the REST API and RSS feeds.

The Premium page#

Create a page with the template Premium (the demo creates /premium/). It shows what readers get, the plans with the monthly/yearly switch and the Subscribe button, and — for visitors who aren’t signed in — create account / sign in on the same page. Text you write in the page editor (e.g. an FAQ) appears below the plans. Every Premium / Subscribe button of the site leads to this page automatically; fill News. → Header → Premium / subscribe URL only to send readers elsewhere.

Selling with WooCommerce#

1. Install WooCommerce and a payment method (e.g. WooCommerce PayPal Payments or Stripe).
2. Open News. → WooCommerce and click Create Premium products — a Monthly (30 days) and a Yearly (365 days) product with the prices of Plan 1, linked to the paywall. Or tick News Premium and set Premium days on any product (General tab; variations can have their own days).
3. Choose which product each plan uses. The paywall and Premium page buttons go straight to the checkout.

• A paid order adds its days to the customer’s Premium date; buying again extends it; a refund or cancellation takes the days back. Every step is noted on the order.
• Buyers without an account get one automatically (WooCommerce e-mails a “set your password” link).
• With WooCommerce Subscriptions, Premium stays active while the subscription is active.
• My account (theme and WooCommerce) shows the Premium status, plan and end date.
• The shop, cart, checkout and My account pages use the News. design; the header can show a cart icon (News. → Header → Cart icon).