Give print subscribers the digital archive

A magazine or newsletter that sells print subscriptions in Shopify can give those subscribers its back issues on WordPress, signed in with the same account they subscribed with.

In Shopify

1. Sell the print subscription through a subscription app.
2. Use the app’s customer tagging, or its Flow triggers, to add print while the subscription is active and remove it when it ends. See Subscriptions.
3. For subscribers who came from elsewhere, such as an older fulfilment house, add a separate tag, print-legacy, by hand or with a customer CSV import, so no subscription workflow removes it.

In WordPress

1. Create a Print subscriber level matching print or print-legacy. See Access levels.
2. Make the archive category, or the issue post type, require that level. See Paywall rules.
3. To keep the newest issue free for a while, set it Free until, then locked. To hold an issue for subscribers first, set Locked until, then free to everyone. See the Editor’s guide.
4. Protect issue PDFs with Members holding Print subscriber. See Protected files.
5. Optionally turn on the meter, so signed-in readers who don’t subscribe can open a few archive stories a month. See The meter.

Limits

• Subscribers need a Shopify customer account. A subscriber whose details sit only in another system gets nothing until they are a tagged Shopify customer.
• The meter is for signed-in readers. Guests are asked to sign in; there is no cookie meter.
• Address changes, pauses and renewals stay in the subscription app. RedeemID follows the tag, not the subscription.