Manage team subscriptions

Use a Multi-Seat subscription when one sponsor should pay for several recipients. The sponsor manages its recipient slots through the configured website integration; each recipient has their own account and claim.

For City Journal, Alex could sponsor three newsroom seats for Morgan, Riley and Sam. Alex does not automatically receive reader access: Alex would need to use a slot if they also want that subscription.

1. Prepare the paid team subscription

Confirm the publication and intended Plan. Use Add subscriptions to a Plan to prepare a new subscription, select Multi-Seat as its Type, and set Number of seats for the intended capacity.

The Admin seat field shows a range of 1–100. This is the configured slot count for a sponsorship, not the member limit of an Admin Group. Existing saved subscription types are not editable in the form.

Agree the price, subscription period and any trial settings. Confirm that the integration owner has provided sponsor purchase, slot management and recipient claim flows for your site.

2. Separate purchase from recipient joining

The sponsor purchases through the configured integration. Successful purchase handling can create the sponsorship, its parent membership and recipient slots. Publisher attachment creates records through a different workflow and does not itself charge the sponsor.

The parent membership's term is set when the Multi-Seat sponsorship is created, using the configured period or trial. Recipients joining later inherit the parent's end date; joining does not start a fresh full term for each person.

The sponsor assigns intended recipient contacts through the integration. Invitation events are attempts to notify; saved contacts and slot counts are not proof that messages arrived.

3. Have each recipient claim their intended slot

Recipients sign in to their own accounts and use the intended protected activation code through the site's supported claim flow. An unused slot, matching publication and any bound recipient identity are checked.

After a claim, inspect that person's reader membership. The integration still needs a separate access decision for the article. Sponsor, slot and recipient membership records are different pieces of evidence.

Find the sponsor in Audience and inspect Sponsored subscriptions. Check the Plan, subscription, Type, Slots and shown Ends value. Understand sponsored access explains the summary's limits.

For City Journal, compare each intended person's membership with the common parent end date. A populated slot summary is not a guarantee that every reader has current access.

When a person leaves or payment preferences change

The supported sponsor integration can clear a Multi-Seat slot. Clearing resets its recipient/contact/code state and attempts removal of the first linked membership. Inspect the saved slot and affected reader after a failure before another action; do not assume the whole change completed or that every form of access stopped immediately.

Changing renewal preferences is separate from clearing a slot, refunding a payment or establishing the reader's current expiry. Read the actual membership and access state rather than inferring it from one switch.

For technical sponsor invitation, claim and clearing instructions, share Sponsor and recipient tasks with the integration owner.

If you meant Admin Groups

Groups is a separate membership-management workflow. It does not share the sponsored-slot count or establish a paid Multi-Seat purchase. The integration owner can use Group-memberships management for that distinct workflow.