UBS Global Media and Communications Conference

Gannett To Extend Paywalls To More Papers

Gannett is planning to roll out paywalls companywide next year in an effort to "capture added revenue and profitability," CEO Gracia Martore yesterday told analysts at the UBS conference in New York.
By
NetNewsCheck,

Gannett is set to join the parade of newspaper publishers rolling out paywalls in an effort to monetize their online properties.

CEO Gracia Martore yesterday told Wall Street analysts at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference that Gannett plans to launch paywalls across more newspapers in 2012 in an effort to "capture added revenue and profitability" from those properties.

Story continues after the ad

"We are confident that this new subscription model will better reflect the value of our incredibly engaging content and position our local news operations in a more robust digital ecosystem."

Gannett had previously tested paywalls at three of its 82 newspapers but has provided few details on their progress, according to former USA Today editor Jim Hopkins, who runs the Gannett Blog.

"GCI's paywall model will be closely watched across the industry because it's the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher. It proceeds cautiously in new initiatives, so a move toward companywide paywalls would be a strong signal that such a strategy is worth pursuing," Hopkins wrote on Gannett Blog.

“Gannett remains strong and I am confident in our future. We will continue to be successful and create growth by leveraging attributes unique to Gannett — our powerful local and national brands and our scale,” Martore said during her presentation. She added that the company would be "taking a holistic view that centers on multiplatform content access. This will ensure readers can access our content when and how they want it — via the Web, smart phones, tablets, e-editions or in print."

Edit Article

Tags

Comments (0) -

Today's Top Stories

Classifieds

The Market

Symbol Last Change (%)
Nasdaq 2863.17 -10.87 (-0.38%)
NYSE 7538.89 -53.92 (-0.71%)
S&P 500 1321.42 -3.38 (-0.26%)
Updated 05/17 10:13a ET Quotes delayed at least 20 mins.
Source: Financial Content
Opinions
Features
Ideas
  • Mobile And The Media's Imploding Biz Model

    Michael Wolff: "If the news business on the Web is depressing, contributing to the existential angst that has gripped every established news organization, mobile turns the story apocalyptic: there is no foreseeable basis on which the news establishment can support itself. There is no way even a stripped-down, aggregation-based, unpaid citizen-journalist staffed newsroom can support itself in a mobile world."

  • WashPo Ombud's Paywall Analysis Is Faulty

    Ryan Chittum: "You can't compare nine months of circulation-revenue changes to 12 months of ad-revenue changes and then say the former 'didn't even cover the decline in the latter.' That's like giving somebody a 100 meter headstart in the 400 meters and then talking about how the laggard couldn't even compete, even though they ran faster than the rest of the field."

  • The 'Sharing' Mirage

    Frédéric Filloux on the benefits and pitfalls of teaming up with content distributors: "Media should be very careful with their level of reliance on other content distributors such as Facebook, Google, Apple or Amazon. This can be summed up to a simple question: can we trust them?The short answer is no."

  • Paywalls Open Doors For Local News Sites

    Howard Owens: "As a matter of business reality, when an incumbent business moves deeper into sustaining innovation it opens up opportunities for disruptors. In every market where a newspaper puts up a paywall, an opportunity is created for an entrepreneur to start a local online news business."

  • For Future Of News, Killer App Is Credibility

    Robert Hernandez, an assistant professor of professional practice in journalism at USC Annenberg: "With technology empowering everyone with the ability to create and to distribute, I predict — and wish — that in 2012 the new dominating factor will be Credibility. Actually, earned Credibility."

  • Layoffs, Cutbacks Lead To News Deserts

    Tom Stites: "Desertification is on the march, claiming more and more communities as newspapers continue to wither and few Web efforts manage to replace more than a fraction of the original reporting that newspapers have abandoned."

  • Moneyball: Fixing Newspaper Web Sales

    Mel Taylor: "Today's Newspaper industry is like that once great, but now struggling baseball team playing on a new, hyper-competitive field called the Internet. The veteran print team is stuck in a rut using the same, tired strategy that did serve them well for years, but no longer. Today, they get trounced by those with more money and muscle."

  • The Metric For Missed Expectations

    Matthew Shanahan: "Here’s the problem: [Click-through rates don't] take into account audience engagement, not to mention the fact that other advertisers are competing for the click-through on the same page."

  • View More Opinion & Commentary

     

This advertisement will close automatically in  second(s). You will see this ad no more than once a day. Skip ad