Paid Content
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February 03, 2012
Over the years, management at Times-Shamrock Communications has debated the issue of newspapers charging for online content, questioning whether the free-site approach was the right one.
"We never came to a definitive answer,” said Edward Pikulski, the company’s content development manager. “When the technology became available to charge, and in a pretty seamless way for the customer – without implementing a really hard pay wall – we became very intrigued.”
February 01, 2012
The New York Times may be the most prominent example, but a host of U.S. and international newspapers are experimenting with paywalls online. Download a chart featuring information about many that have sprung up in the past year or are about to begin trials.
September 06, 2011
In March 2011 the Daily O’Collegian, the student newspaper of Oklahoma State University, became the first college newspaper to try out paid content for its online product. But the metered model decided upon only affects a small segment of its readership. If a user is registered with an “.edu” email address, signifying that they either are or were a student or member of the faculty, they never have to pay for content on the website no matter where they are located in the world.
August 26, 2011
In 2009 Freedom Communications was looking to enact paywalls for two of its smaller newspaper markets in order to test out the concept. Lima, Ohio was one of the two selected because the newspaper’s site had substantial traffic in its market and staff had a higher level of comfort with Web-based operations than at some other markets in the company.
August 08, 2011
In December 2010, the Hickory (N.C.) Daily Record adopted a metered model for users of its website. The change meant that online readers can access up to 15 pages free each month before being forced to pay a monthly fee. Print subscribers are entitled to a discounted rate. The Daily Record, at that point, became the first Media General newspaper to launch a paid content model for its website.
June 30, 2011
Beginning on Dec. 1, 2010, the Columbia Daily Tribune implemented a metered model for its website. Users can access up to 10 free articles per month; after that amount, they have to pay for access with either an online-only subscription or bundled subscription with print. As part of the strategy, the newspaper started prohibiting anyone not a subscriber – in either form – from commenting on articles on its site. The Columbia Daily Tribune is an 18,000 daily-circulation newspaper owned, since 1905, by the locally-based Waters/Watson family.
June 30, 2011
With the emergence of constantly new digital developments, newspapers are finding that Web-savvy readers are moving across platforms for different reasons and are willing to pay for content at varying price points. The keys to drawing subscribers lies in providing desired content, creating ease of navigation across platforms and marketing the value of the digital content.
December 16, 2010
A presentation by Sean Donahue, editor of Subscription Site Insider, exclusively for NAA is available here. The webinar, titled Newspapers: How to Grow Online Subscription Revenues, outlines what newspaper content should be free vs. paid, the best pricing strategy for paid content, real-life examples of paywalls that sell and where the paywall should go on the site.
October 11, 2010
Hoping to get a boost in online revenue and to avoid just giving their content away, The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, N.Y.), a small independent newspaper, put up a pay wall in August 2009. Since then, readers have had to pay a weekly fee to read the newspaper’s local stories, reviews, obituaries and columns as well as to post comments on stories. Select breaking news stories continue to be free of charge. Subscribers to the print product can pay a penny a week on top of their print subscription amount to receive unlimited online access. Non print subscribers have a weekly rate for just web access.
June 07, 2010
A six-month trial in two local markets to evaluate the impact of pay models focused on a metered model, with the goal of building a new revenue stream with minimal disruption to online advertising revenue. The decision to shift to a metered model came from analyzing two key metrics: sell-through rates of 54 percent and the observation that 75 percent of visits were generated by 35 percent of the audience.
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