The Economist, another longtime Blendle publishing partner that has stories featured in both the European and US versions of the platform. Alexandre says revenue from single-article sales is going to be incremental to The Economist’s bottom line for the foreseeable future, but she thinks it has a role to play in driving sign-ups to the Economist.com.

Taylor says Blendle probably won’t be a long-term part of her media diet because of sharing issues. “I just want to share some articles with friends of mine,” she says, “and some of those friends have limited budgets and will not be signing up for Blendle.”