In ‘PotterMore is No More’ I discussed the announcement that Rowling, Inc., had made that the web site dedicated to serving (servicing?) Harry Potter fandom was to be renamed WizardingWorld.com and that a gold membership in that site’s Harry Potter Fan Club would come at the cost of an annual subscription, i.e., the site would no longer free to all.

Last week the roll-out continued with an announcement of what a gold membership in the Harry Potter Fan Club would include as exclusive benefits and how much it would cost. The benefits are essentially pathways to participate in fandom destinations and events (read them all here) and the cost is “$74.99 (US) or £59.99 (UK) per year.”

That’s just over 22 cents a day to receive bulletins about what’s going on in the Rowling universe and how you can participate by purchasing something from them.  Having to pay to receive what are largely inducements to buy more Rowling, Inc., memorabilia and packaged ‘fan experiences’ is galling, no?

That said, it remains a source of wonder to me that Rowling has paid her PotterMore staff millions of galleons for close to a decade to create and maintain a website that brought in money only from the sale of eBooks. I’m curious about how many serious Potter Pundits will feel obliged as I do to subscribe — let me know in the comment boxes below what your plans are — but, galled as I may be at having to pay this fee, I find it hard to resent anyone wanting to be paid for services provided.

Your thoughts?