Home›Open Questions›What is the earliest documented specific instance of the subscription business model, beyond the century Wikipedia gives for its origin?Open QuestionsWhat is the earliest documented specific instance of the subscription business model, beyond the century Wikipedia gives for its origin?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextBusiness Atlas. "What is the earliest documented specific instance of the subscription business model, beyond the century Wikipedia gives for its origin?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-business.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/openq-subscription-model-origin-year.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextBusiness Atlas. (n.d.). What is the earliest documented specific instance of the subscription business model, beyond the century Wikipedia gives for its origin?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-business.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/openq-subscription-model-origin-yearCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{businessatlas-what-is-the-earliest-documented-specific, author = {Business Atlas}, title = {What is the earliest documented specific instance of the subscription business model, beyond the century Wikipedia gives for its origin?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-business.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/openq-subscription-model-origin-year}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionWikipedia's article on the subscription business model states only that the model 'was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century', with no specific year, title or publisher named. Writing an origin-year property here would either invent false precision or have to be left unwritten; this open question records the gap honestly instead.What would resolve this A source naming the specific periodical, book series or publisher credited as the first subscription offering, with a year, so this entity could carry an honest origin-year fact instead of only the century-level claim.OpenWikipedia, Subscription Business ModelCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnSubscription Business Model, Business Models Well-attested Source Wikipedia, Subscription Business Modeltier 2SourcesWikipedia, Subscription Business Modeltier 2WikipediaHistory sectionView the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year