Time Inc. has become the first US magazine publisher to accept subscription payment in bitcoin, the controversial digital currency.

The four titles that will initially be involved in the test, conducted with Coinbase, will be Fortune, Travel & Leisure, This Old House and Health.

San Francisco-based Coinbase is described as a digital wallet where vendors and consumers can make transactions using the new digital currency.

“Think of them as a MasterCard or Visa that accepts bitcoin and converts them to payments in cash,” said Scott McAllister, Time Inc. senior vice president of digital marketing + revenue.

McAllister said the company is not bothered by some of the more unsavory rumored users of the currency.

“You could argue that cash has a shady element as well because there is an element of anonymity to both,” said McAllister.

He added that bitcoin “clearly appeals to a different generation of consumers.”

While Time is the first big publisher to embrace it, companies ranging from Dell to Expedia to the Dish Network and Overstock.com all accept payments in bitcoin as well, said McAllister.

It clearly is growing in acceptance. In the spring of 2013, Forbes writer Kashmir Hill said she spent a week in San Francisco living on nothing but bitcoin.

She also referenced a bitcoin speculator who had made a fortune by maxing out $30,000 on credit cards and using the money to buy bitcoin that he eventually sold for around $420,000 when the price surged to $200 from $15.

This year has been a different story as bitcoin has plunged 52 percent, Atlantic Media’s Quartz site said Tuesday in pegging the digital currency as the “worst investment of 2014.”

McAllister said there is no word on when or whether the company’s other magazines, including People, Sports Illustrated or In Style, might eventually be included.

“It’s early days,” he said. “Its a test, a pilot.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, said in a statement: “For a major publisher like Time Inc. to embrace bitcoin sends an important message to both its readers and to the broader media community. In addition to providing consumers with an easy, convenient way to pay for their subscriptions, it also opens the door for applications across the industry.”