Paywalls and Pay Strategies

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  • Apps: The app genie is out of the bottle. Local news organizations have moved past the stage of merely having an app and are moving on to the tricky challenge of monetizing those apps, and to do that, they will have to build on the momentum of local mobile search, unlock the power of geolocation and push for better app metrics.
  • Daily Deals: Local media companies are turning to white-label platform providers so that they can build their own brand in the marketplace and potentially make more money.

Industry Calendar

May 2012
Mo
28
Memorial Day
Holiday
June 2012
Th
Sa
7-9
Association of Alternative Newsmedia
AAN's 35th Annual Convention
Detroit, MI
We
27
BIA/Kelsey
Mobile Local Media San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
July 2012
We
4
Independence Day
Holiday
Fr
Su
27-12
Summer Olympics
Holiday

Net Essentials

Paywalls and Pay Strategies
McClatchy Starts ‘Robust Test’ Of Pay Model
JimRomenesko.com, May 23, 2012, 3:54 PM EDT
McClatchy VP of news Anders Gyllenhaal told employees in a memo that the company would begin a "robust test" with Press+ of a new pay plan for its newspapers: "The approach will offer readers a new print-digital subscription that will include access to multimedia editions for a relatively small increase of home delivery rates." Link | Add comment
Pubs Warm To DoubleRecall Paywall Scheme
PaidContent, May 22, 2012, 7:49 AM EDT
DoubleRecall's advertising wall, which prompts readers to type words from an ad to access content, has taken off in Europe and is ready to come to America via El Diario-publisher Impremedia. Link | Add comment
Crain's Chicago Business To Put Up Paywall
WBEZ, May 22, 2012, 7:49 AM EDT
The business news publication will put its content behind a metered paywall beginning June 14. Readers will be able to access 12 online articles for free each month, but after that they will have to pay $59 for an annual subscription. Link | Add comment
DigiCareers Survey
90% Expect Free Content Before Paywall
DigiCareers, May 18, 2012, 3:27 PM EDT
The vast majority of visitors to paywalled sites — 90% — expect companies to provide at least some free content before they encounter the paywall, according to a survey of 200 new media professionals conducted by DigiCareer. A majority of those media professionals (52%) reported immediately leaving a site after encountering a paywall and 58% were unsure if they'd visit a site again after hitting the wall. Full results can be found here. | Add comment
Berkshire Hathaway's Media General Buy
Is Warren Buffet Right About Paywalls?
Xark, May 18, 2012, 3:11 PM EDT
Dan Conover on newspaper paywalls and the Media General sale: "Print subscription charges cover some portion of the cost of paper, printing and delivery, not content costs, but the paywall advocates have a point when it comes to the consumer's perspective. Subscribers think they're paying for content, even though all they're really doing is defraying overhead. So the strength of the paywall argument is a consumer-mentality argument, not an "our content has tangible value absent advertising" argument." Link | Add comment
Bug Caused Survey Wall To Stop Reader
Poynter, May 16, 2012, 8:19 AM EDT
Scott Kidder, director of editorial operations at Gawker Media, ran up against Adweek's survey wall in a story that was shared on Google Plus, essentially asking him to share a story before he read it. Google's reponse: It was a bug. Link | Add comment
At NY Weekly, Online News Comes With Fee
The New York Times, May 16, 2012, 6:58 AM EDT
The Wave in Queens, N.Y., one of New York City's oldest newspapers, has had a functional paywall in place since 2003, but it has kept the price low because the newspaper is not looking to online revenue for its long-term salvation. Link | Add comment
Five More Gannett Papers Get Paywalls
News & Tech, May 14, 2012, 3:45 PM EDT
Gannett Co. Inc.’s U.S. Community Publishing launched pay initiatives at The Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., the Star-Gazette in Elmira, N.Y., the Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal and New Jersey dailies Home News Tribune and Courier News. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Ingram: 3 Reasons I Don’t Like Paywalls
GigaOM, May 14, 2012, 7:44 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Whether or not the newspapers that implement them are willing to admit it, one of the primary features of a paywall is that it keeps people in, not out. In other words, it makes it less likely that they will quit the paper and go digital completely, and thereby protects the printed newspaper." Link | Comments (1)
Commentary
Anti-Paywall Stance Will Hurt WashPo
Columbia Journalism Review, May 11, 2012, 3:35 PM EDT
Dismal earnings, dividends and share buybacks, as well as an anti-paywall stance are hurting The Washington Post's prospects for the future of the newspaper and the company as a whole. Link | Add comment
Canada's Globe And Mail To Erect Paywall
Agence France-Presse, May 11, 2012, 3:28 PM EDT
Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper has announced plans for a metered paywall to generate extra revenue and has also asked staff to take unpaid leave amid an ongoing slide in advertising income. Link | Add comment
YouTube Mulls Paywalled Video Service
New York Post, May 11, 2012, 8:47 AM EDT
YouTube is considering the introduction of a premium, subscription-based video service.The video giant is holding conversations with program providers about adding more top-shelf content to its channels but putting it behind a paywall as some newspapers have done, sources say. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Should Papers Do Anything To Make Money?
GigaOM, Apr 30, 2012, 7:14 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "If a paper erects a paywall that costs $15 a month, that's one thing — but what if it's a subscription plan designed for hedge funds and bond traders? If that is a newspaper's central focus, hasn't it given up any hope of being a public entity or keeping the interests of society at heart? In some ways, general-interest papers seem to be damned if they do and damned if they don't." Link | Add comment
Texas Study Shows Who Will Pay For News
Nieman Journalism Lab, Apr 27, 2012, 3:08 PM EDT
How do you get someone to pay for online news? A new study from the University of Texas develops a theoretical model to begin answering that question. And who is the most likely to pay: Young males who are interested in the news. Link | Add comment
newsonomics of 99-cent media
Digital Content Wants A Fee ... But How Much
Nieman Journalism Lab, Apr 27, 2012, 7:29 AM EDT
Ken Doctor: "In the digital era, pricing is confronting — and confounding — media companies. Just what in the digital world of vanishing manufacturing costs is digital media worth? Now with those 20th-century costs — printing, manufacture, distribution, shipping — passing into the night, the question of price, and value, is making itself loudly heard." Link | Add comment
Google Shutters One Pass Payment Platform
Total Telecom, Apr 23, 2012, 8:04 AM EDT
Google's subscription service for online news sites was shut down on Friday as Google continued house cleaning launched when co-founder Larry Page took charge last year. Link | Add comment
NAB 2012
Brightcove Debuts Video Paywall Solution
Streaming Media Magazine, Apr 20, 2012, 8:13 AM EDT
Brightcove has partnered with PayWizard (in the U.K.) and TinyPass (in the U.S.) to create a paywall solution that offers pay-per-view, subscription and eWallet plans to video content owners. Link | Add comment
Piano Media Land 2M Euros In Funding
NetNewsCheck, Apr 17, 2012, 7:36 AM EDT
The company, which has rolled out national paywalls in Slovakia and Slovenia, will use the new funding to continue its expansion, drive global recruitment and software development and boost its marketing efforts. Full Story | Add comment
NAA mediaXchange 2012
Gannett Expects Paywall Will Be Worth $100M
Poynter, Apr 9, 2012, 8:18 AM EDT
Gannett community newspaper chief Bob Dickey on the company's plan to roll out paywalls at most of its newspapers by the end of the year: “We think that will be worth $100 million to us in 2013.” Link | Add comment
Florida Trib Papers To Put Up Paywalls
News & Tech, Apr 6, 2012, 7:54 AM EDT
Tribune's South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel next week will roll out new digital subscriber plans. In a letter to readers, the newspaper said it would release more details on April 9. Link | Add comment
How Many Papers Actually Have Paywalls?
Nieman Journalism Lab, Apr 5, 2012, 2:02 PM EDT
Pew Research Center recently reported that there are roughly 150 U.S. dailies with paywalls, while the Associated Press this week said, “Nearly 300 US newspapers now charging for access on websites, smartphones and tablets.” So which one is right? It depends on who you ask and how you count. Link | Add comment
Ex-LAT Editor Slams Paper's Digital Strategy
The Wrap, Apr 5, 2012, 8:21 AM EDT
Matt Welch, a former editor at the Los Angeles Times, during a Twitter battle with current Times staffers, blasted the newspaper's new paywall and some of its recent moves. Link | Add comment
NAA mediaXchange 2012
Papers Erect Paywalls In Hunt For New Rev
Associated Press, Apr 5, 2012, 8:04 AM EDT

Bob Dickey, president of Gannett's U.S. community publishing division, on paywalls: "This is a turning point for us. What we are saying is our content has great value and it serves a great purpose. The consumers have told us that." Full Story | Add comment

Commentary
Does LAT Paywall Smack Readers In Face?
PaidContent, Apr 4, 2012, 3:54 PM EDT
Jeff John Roberts: "What the old-time paper pushers do have is the power of their brands. The Economist has already become a nimble digital property — there seems to no reason why great brands like The New York Times and the LA Times can’t do the same. The only question is whether they will figure it out before the sands in the print hourglass run out." Link | Add comment
NAA mediaXchange 2012
Paper Execs Buoyant On Digital Prospects
NetNewsCheck, Apr 4, 2012, 7:21 AM EDT
A panel of newspaper executives at the Newspaper Association of America's mediaXchange conference Tuesday said the tide is turning for the embattled industry as their digital efforts — including paid content models and pushing content to other platforms — take hold and begin to pay off. Full Story | Add comment
NAA mediaXchange 2012
Papers: Good Biz Model Vital To Pay Success
NetNewsCheck, Apr 4, 2012, 6:27 AM EDT
Executives from three early paid content adopters — the Commercial Appeal, the Star Tribune and The Boston Globe — speaking at the NAA's mediaXchange conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, stressed the importance of having a solid business model in place before transitioning to a pay model. Full Story | Add comment
Commentary
How Far Should Paper Promos Open Paywalls
PaidContent, Mar 30, 2012, 8:14 AM EDT
Jeff Roberts on the benefits and drawbacks of newspapers letting customers see content for free during promotions: "The lift-the-paywall gimmicks may produce higher page views and the potential for pulling in new subscribers. But the real value probably lies in ad money from the sponsorship themselves." Link | Add comment
Google Rolls Out Paywall Alternative
Adweek, Mar 29, 2012, 2:27 PM EDT
The Internet giant today launched Google Customer Surveys, a new product aimed at helping struggling traditional and digital publishers to make money on their Web content. The programs launch partners include the New York Daily News, Texas Tribune, Adweek, Pandora and The Lima News. Link | Add comment
Sub Manager MediaPass Raises $1.75M
TechCrunch, Mar 29, 2012, 8:05 AM EDT
It's no secret that publishers are scrambling to find ways of making money online. On the subscription/paywall side, a startup called MediaPass wants to help, and it just raised $1.75 million in Series B funding. Link | Add comment
Study
Piano Subs Better Educated, Earn More
NetNewsCheck, Mar 29, 2012, 6:52 AM EDT
Subscribers to Piano Media's Slovak national paywall tend to be better educated, live in larger cities and earn more than the average Slovak Internet user, according to a new study released today. Full Story | Add comment
Commentary
WashPo Ombud's Paywall Analysis Is Faulty
Columbia Journalism Review, Mar 28, 2012, 3:28 PM EDT
Ryan Chittum on Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton's column on The New York Times paywall about the possibility of a paywall at the Post: "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." Link | Add comment
The New Republic Pulls Down Its Paywall
NetNewsCheck, Mar 28, 2012, 1:33 PM EDT
The New Republic today announced that it was lowering its paywall for recent content on the magazine's website, tnr.com. Readers, including nonsubscribers, will be able to read content posted to the site, however, stories in the magazine's current issue will still reside behid the paywall. | Add comment
Commentary
Forget Paywalls, Create Velvet Rope Instead
GigaOM, Mar 27, 2012, 6:54 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "One answer is to think of the relationship with readers as being about more than just money, and then let the monetization flow out of that relationship, rather than the reverse." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Is A Paywall Coming To Washington Post?
The Washington Post, Mar 26, 2012, 7:29 AM EDT
Patrick Pexton, ombudsman for The Washington Post, says that, at least for the short term, there will be no paywall for the newspaper. The Post needs to accomplish two goals before putting up a paywall: Attract more readers and improve its information technology systems. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Paywalls Open Doors For Local News Sites
Howard Owens, Mar 26, 2012, 6:57 AM EDT
Howard Owens, publisher of local Internet pureplay The Batavian: "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." Link | Add comment
Guardian Paywall ‘Has Not Been Ruled Out’
Journalism.co.uk, Mar 26, 2012, 6:26 AM EDT
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, during the newspaper's Open Weekend asked readers what they were prepared to give back to the news group in return for journalism — money, time or data — and said that asking readers to pay for online subscriptions “has not been ruled out.” Link | Add comment
Paywalls Now A Global Phenomenon
WBEZ, Mar 22, 2012, 3:57 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on WBEZ radio show The Afternoon Shift said paywalls have become a global paywall phenomenon with paywalls expected soon in many cities around the world.   [Audio] Link | Add comment
Lee To Roll Out Paywalls By End Of 2012
NetNews, Mar 22, 2012, 3:44 PM EDT
Lee Enterprises CEO Mary Junck announced Wednesday that the company plans introduce digital subscription programs in most of its 52 markets before the end of the year. Full Story | Add comment
Guardian Changing Media Summit
Piano Plans To Move Into Bigger Markets
PaidContent, Mar 22, 2012, 2:34 PM EDT
Piano Media, which has rolled out national paywalls in Slovakia and Slovenia, is setting its sites on bigger markets. The company plans to launch in three more countries this year and be in 19 countries by 2014, founder and CEO Tomas Bella said at The Guardian's Changing Media Summit.
Link | Add comment
New iPad Has Perks For Publishers
Adweek, Mar 20, 2012, 3:19 PM EDT
The new iPad's richer visuals raise concerns that consumers already frustrated by long download times for digital editions of magazines will have to suffer still more waiting. But some good news: Apple is quietly letting publishers offer trials on auto-renewing subscriptions. Link | Add comment
NYT Paywall: One Year Later
NY Times Tightens Paywall Limits
NetNewsCheck, Mar 20, 2012, 12:09 PM EDT
One year after putting up its metered paywall, the newspaper is approaching a half million digital subscribers and readying to tighten restrictions to free content: The Times will limit readers to 10 free stories per month, down from 20, starting in April. Full Story | Add comment
NY Time Paywall: One Year Later
NYT Paywall Sees Success, More Challenges
Capital New York, Mar 19, 2012, 3:16 PM EDT
Last March, The New York Times launched its metered paywall. In the year since, the new subscription model has surprised insiders with its degree of success. Link | Add comment
Piano's Slovene Paywall An Early Success
NetNewsCheck, Mar 15, 2012, 8:30 AM EDT
In its first month of operation, Piano Media's new Slovene national paywall is generating 37% more revenue per capita than its first effort in its home country of Slovakia. Full Story | Add comment
Piano Builds A National Paywall That Works
Columbia Journalism Review, Mar 12, 2012, 2:19 PM EDT
While nobody was looking, Piano Media, a small company in Slovakia, may have shed some light on one of the biggest challenges to the news business in the digital age: how to get people to pay for news online. Video interview with Piano founder and CEO Tomas Bella from Bill Baker's WNET blog:
Link | Add comment
Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Press Plus Opens Pay Model Data Vault
PaidContent, Mar 9, 2012, 8:39 AM EST
RR Donnelley’s Press Plus this week gave a look at the pay experiments of its 285 affiliates, including the fact that all of those affiliates have opted for meters over full paywalls. Link | Add comment
Newsonomics of Paywalls All Over The World
Total Rev More Critical Than Digital-Only Rev
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 9, 2012, 7:33 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "If you tell customers 'we’ll get you our content however, wherever you want it' — and deliver on that proposition with products that match the tablet and smartphone age — the creation of added value makes sense to readers. So it’s important to look beyond digital-only revenue itself, and look at the total reader-revenue-producing potential of smart pay plans." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Paywalls Will Diffuse Death Of Newspapers
The Ithican, Mar 8, 2012, 3:57 PM EST
How Paywalls Affect Social Media Efforts
Poynter, Mar 7, 2012, 1:23 PM EST
Mallary Jean Tenore on the impact paywalls are having on the social media efforts of five news sites: "News sites have a lot of options when deciding how their paywalls and social media efforts interact." Link | Add comment
Newspapers Putting Their Faith In Paywalls
The Wall Street Journal, Mar 6, 2012, 6:56 AM EST
As more newspapers close the door on free access to their websites, some publishers are still waiting for paying customers to pour in. The numbers of readers signing up so far suggest that at many papers, "paywalls" aren't about to reverse publishers' deteriorating finances. Yet the results aren't discouraging industry executives, who say their efforts are succeeding in shoring up the core print business after years of declines. Link | Add comment
LA Times 'Membership' Poses Challenge
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 2, 2012, 1:47 PM EST
The Los Angeles Times recent announcement that it would begin charging for access to content called its strategy a "membership program," promising “retail discounts, deals and giveaways, as well as access to digital news.” The approach is worth looking at from the standpoint of how a newspaper brands itself, and how that can entice readers to pay for an online product that has been free for a long time. Link | Add comment
Seattle Times Readies Apps, Hints At Paywall
NetNewsCheck, Mar 1, 2012, 3:43 PM EST
The Seattle Times will roll out new tablet and smartphone apps in April. The newspaper also hinted at a possible future paywall, saying that its digital properties "remain free and open for the time being.” Full Story | Add comment
Commentary
Can An Army Of Paywalls Buoy Gannett?
Nieman Journalism Lab, Feb 29, 2012, 4:09 PM EST
Justin Ellis: "Since each site has the ability to determine the pricing for its subscription plan, there will undoubtedly be tension between what individual markets will bare and what the mothership needs to improve its bottom line. For Gannett, one paper’s success with digital subscriptions can be another paper’s failure." Link | Add comment
Why Warren Buffett Is Wrong About Paywalls
GigaOM, Feb 29, 2012, 8:21 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "A paywall may help stop print circulation from eroding, but that still makes it seem a lot more like a wall of sandbags than any kind of coherent digital strategy. And in any case, a paywall is almost inevitably going to appeal to only a small subset of readers." Link | Add comment
Key Executives Mega Conference 2012
Newspapers: Don't Fear Paywall Plunge
NetNewsCheck, Feb 28, 2012, 7:54 PM EST
Executives from the Tulsa World, The Ottawa Herald and the Columbia Daily Tribune — three newspapers that have shifted their content behind paywalls — speaking at the Key Excutives Mega Conference in San Antonio told newspapers that the shift to paid content was nothing to fear, offering up their papers' success as the benefits of paywalls. Full Story | Add comment
Key Executives Mega Conference 2012
Survey: 42% Of Non-Dailies Use Paywalls
NetNewsCheck, Feb 28, 2012, 7:05 PM EST
Some 42% of weekly newspapers currently put their content behind a paywall — in line with the 43% of dailies charging for content — while many of the rest expect to begin charging for digital access to their content in the near future, according to a new survey from the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association released today at the Key Executives Mega Conference. The survey also found that weekly publishers are upbeat about the future of newspapers — in print and online. Full Story | Add comment
Warren Buffett: Don't Give Away Content
Forbes, Feb 28, 2012, 7:54 AM EST
AP+Photo%2FShuji+Kajiyama
AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama
Warren Buffett, who recently purchased the Omaha World-Herald, during a CNBC interview Monday said that newspapers with free websites — such as The Washington Post — are cannibalizing their revenue: "Newspapers have been giving away their product at the same time they're selling it, and that is not a great business model. So when they put papers up on the internet and you get it free, you're competing with yourself." Link | Add comment
Key Executives Mega Conference 2012
Execs: Collaboration Key To Papers' Future
NetNewsCheck, Feb 28, 2012, 6:34 AM EST
Local newspapers starting to navigate the murky waters of paid content need to develop a good strategy that puts content on the free side and the paid side of the wall — and perhaps come up with a better word than "paywall" — if they want to drive revenue in the digital world, according to executives speaking at the Key Executives Mega Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Excutives also emphasized the need for increased collaboration in the industry, as well as taking advantage of various digital platforms — especially tablets. Full Story | Add comment
Providence Journal Launches Pay Plan
Providence Journal, Feb 27, 2012, 3:59 PM EST
Starting on Tuesday, Rhode Island's Providence Journal will begin charging some subscribers for access to the newspaper’s digital editions. Link | Add comment
Journal Sentinel Offers Paid Content Model
Poynter, Feb 27, 2012, 3:46 PM EST
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel launched a “JS Everywhere” pay plan Jan. 4 and is reporting that in a little less than two months, the online-only offer has 8,800 takers, which is in line with expectations. That works out out to $450,000 in new circulation revenue per year. Link | Add comment
Paton Is Right, And Wrong About Paywalls
Paywall Times, Feb 27, 2012, 2:46 PM EST
"[MediaNews Group CEO John] Paton’s derision of paywalls is misplaced. ... His focus on advertising is disconcerting for readers seeking independent content, neither state-sponsored nor advertiser-sponsored." Link | Add comment
LA Times Raises Paywall For Online News
Los Angeles Times, Feb 24, 2012, 4:08 PM EST
The Los Angeles Times on March 5 will begin charging readers for access to its online news. Online readers will be asked to buy a digital subscription at an initial rate of 99 cents for four weeks. Readers who do not subscribe will be able to read 15 stories in a 30-day period for free. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Will Gannett's Paywall Plan Work?
PaidContent, Feb 23, 2012, 7:35 AM EST
Jeff Roberts: "There are some wildcards here. These include Gannett’s capacity to develop and scale mobile and tablet applications for all of its properties." Link | Add comment
Gannett Plans Paywalls For All Except One
Forbes, Feb 22, 2012, 2:35 PM EST
The company is planning to switch all of its 80 community newspapers to a metered paid model by the end of the year, it announced today during its investor day event. The one exception: national newspaper USA Today. Late Last year, CEO Gracia Martore told Wall Street analysts that the company would be rolling out paywalls in an effort to monetize its online properties. Link | Add comment
Piano, Paywalls And Lessons From TV Subs
The Media Briefing, Feb 14, 2012, 3:58 PM EST
Tomáš Bella, CEO of Piano Media: "We are trying to get to that situation where people don't think about paying. The thing is, personally, micropayments will not work for the same reason that newspapers will want to sell individual print articles." Link | Add comment
Piano Raises Prices On Slovakia Paywall
NetNewsCheck, Feb 13, 2012, 1:11 PM EST
Piano Media starting March 1 will increase the price for access to content from publishers covered by the company's national paywall in Slovakia. Full Story | Add comment
Chicago Trib Plans To Charge For Web News
Crain's Chicago Business, Feb 8, 2012, 3:18 PM EST
The Chicago Tribune is mulling "creative ways" to start charging online readers for access, the paper's editor Gerould Kern said at the Niagara Foundation in Chicago. Link | Add comment
Piano Expands Slovak National Paywall
NetNewsCheck, Feb 6, 2012, 2:37 PM EST
Piano Media today added two daily newspapers and a weekly magazine to its year-old national paywall for news sites in Slovakia. Full Story | Add comment
Commentary
NYT Needs More Than Just A Paywall
GigaOM, Feb 6, 2012, 8:13 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "There's nothing wrong with having a paywall — although in many cases it amounts to building a wall of sandbags around the print newspaper edition, which provides most of the ad revenue — but if a paywall is your only strategy for responding to digital disruption of the media business, then you are almost certainly doomed, whether you are The New York Times or not." Link | Add comment
Shirky: Paywalls Will Live On Core Audience
NPR, Feb 3, 2012, 12:05 PM EST
Clay Shirky: "In fact, what [The New York Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Chicago Sun Times] are doing, and I think an increasing number of papers are copying them, is saying we will never get a majority or even a sizable minority of our readers to pay us directly, but we can design a system in which some of our most passionate, engaged readers pay us directly, and the rest of the readers, the casual readers, we can keep around for the advertising revenue." Listen to the full interview here .   Link | Add comment
NY Times Traffic Is Flat Since Paywall
Poynter, Jan 26, 2012, 8:06 AM EST
The New York Times counted about 44 million unique visitors worldwide last February before instating its paywall. By December, that figure reached 44.8 million. Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy: "We certainly haven't seen the sorts of declines that people anticipated when we launched the paywall." Link | Add comment
Slovenia's National Paywall Goes Up
Journalism.co.uk, Jan 17, 2012, 8:11 AM EST
The country's national paywall, powered by Piano Media, was erected Monday with nine participating publishers — including the majority of the country's major newspapers. Link | Add comment
Paywalls Could Become Norm In Canada
The Canadian Press, Jan 16, 2012, 3:28 PM EST
Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey believes his company's competitors will follow the company's lead and turn to paywalls to help offset tumbling ad sales. Link | Add comment
Piano Wants National Paywalls Across Europe
Nieman Journalism Lab, Jan 12, 2012, 8:31 AM EST
The recent expansion of Piano Media into Slovenia is just the beginning of the company's efforts to bring national paywalls to five European countries by year's end. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
How FT, NY Times Will Crack The Paywall
Monday Note, Jan 9, 2012, 3:27 PM EST
Frédéric Filloux on how the Financial Times and The New York Times can make their paywall efforts successful: "With pre-existing and different audience segments such as an individual and corporate users, pricing decisions become more complicated and a diversified price list can prevent cannibalization. Link | Add comment
Piano To Roll Out Slovenian National Paywall
NetNewsCheck, Jan 9, 2012, 3:06 PM EST
Piano, which launched a national paywall for news sites in Slovakia last year, is rolling out a similar effort for publishers in Slovenia on Jan. 16. Full Story | Add comment
2011: Not Really Year Of 'The Great Paywall'
GigaOM, Jan 6, 2012, 8:29 AM EST
Bobbie Johnson: "There has been a lot written about paywalls over the past year or two. ... As far as I can see, the jury is still out on the issue. It's not that paywalls can't work — there are countless examples of success over the years. Still, we should be very careful that when they succeed, people take away the right lessons." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Baltimore Sun Paywall Should Emulate NYT
Baltimore Magazine, Jan 6, 2012, 8:29 AM EST
Evan Serpick: "ne aspect of the paywall that I have been critical of from the start is that, unlike The [New York] Times, The [Baltimore] Sun requires its print subscribers to pay an additional fee to access the website. This just feels like to insult to the paper's core customers, those who have stuck by it while others fled." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Newspapers, Paywalls And Core Users
Clay Shirky, Jan 5, 2012, 8:05 AM EST
Clay Shirky: "Against this hugely variable audience behavior, a paywall was all-or-nothing: 'If you won’t give us any money, we won’t show you any ads!' Offered this all-or-nothing choice, most readers opted for ‘nothing’ ... This isn’t a problem with general-interest paywalls — it is the problem, widely understood before the turn of the century, and one to which there has never been a convincing answer. The easy part of treating digital news as a product is getting money from 2% of your audience. The hard part is losing 98% of your advertising base." Link | Add comment
Report: UK's Sun Charging For Archived Content
Wall Blog, Jan 3, 2012, 2:09 PM EST
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Puts Up Paywall
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec 30, 2011, 7:33 AM EST
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's digital subscription program — dubbed JS Everywhere — is set to begin Jan. 4. The newspaper will erect a metered paywall similar to that of The New York Times, allowing users to read up to 20 stories for free before they hit the paywall. Access to the Journal Sentinel's mobile site for smartphones and coming iPad app will require a print or digital subscription. Link | Add comment
Could A 'Reverse Pay Meter' Work For News?
BuzzMachine, Dec 29, 2011, 8:35 AM EST
Jeff Jarvis on changing the pay strategy for newspaper sites: "My idea for the reverse meter values the engaged reader over the occasional reader — and even rewards greater engagement. And therein lies, I think, the key strategic skill for news businesses online: understanding that all readers are not equal; knowing who your more valuable readers are; getting more of them; and making them more valuable." Link | Add comment
How Digital First Succeeds At Making Money
The Buttry Diary, Dec 29, 2011, 8:35 AM EST
Steve Buttry: "Newspaper advertising revenues have dropped by 64% (after adjusting for inflation) from the third quarter of 2005 to the third quarter of this year. After 21 straight quarters of dropping ad revenues, the news business needs a new revenue approach." Link | Add comment
Oliver & Ohlbaum Study
Web Is UK’s No. 2 News Source, But Only 3.8% Pay
PaidContent, Dec 28, 2011, 3:13 PM EST
INMA CEO Earl Wilkinson:
Bundles Are The End Game, Not Paywalls
CTV News, Dec 28, 2011, 8:34 AM EST
Earl Wilkinson, the executive director and CEO of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association: "I believe that the end game for most media companies is not the value of paywalls; it's ultimately the value of bundled subscriptions." Link | Add comment
UBS Global Media and Communications Conference
Gannett To Extend Paywalls To More Papers
NetNewsCheck, Dec 8, 2011, 8:07 AM EST
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. Full Story | Add comment
NY Times, Star Trib Make Adweek's Hot List
Adweek, Dec 7, 2011, 7:42 AM EST
The New York Times and the Minnesota Star Tribune, which both launched paywalls earlier this year, were recognized by Adweek as the year's hottest national and regional papers respectively. Link | Add comment
Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Strib Paywall: Rev Rises Despite Traffic Slip
MinnPost, Dec 7, 2011, 7:36 AM EST
Minnesota's Star Tribune launched its paywall Nov. 1, and despite a 15% drop in page views and 10% dip in unique visitors, the paper's publisher Michael Klingensmith said revenue from the wall has more than offset the ad revenue decline from the traffic losses. Link | Add comment
Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Chicago Sun-Times To Erect Metered Paywall
Associated Press, Dec 7, 2011, 7:20 AM EST
The paywall, which launches on Thursday, will allow readers to read 20 stories for free every 30 days before requiring subscriptions. The paywall will also take effect at Sun-Times Media's member newspapers in Chicago's suburbs, including the Naperville Sun, the Beacon-News in Aurora, and the Evanston Review. Full Story | Add comment
Three MNG Sites Drop Paywalls On Mondays
PaidContent, Dec 6, 2011, 3:54 PM EST
MediaNews Group is rolling out "digital-first Mondays" at six of its California newspapers. The newspapers — The (Vacaville) Reporter, (Vallejo) Times-Herald, (Eureka) Times-Standard, The Oakland Tribune, (Fremont) Argus and Daily (Hayward) Review — will cease publication of their Monday print editions and the three that have paywalls will make all Web content free on Mondays. Link | Add comment
Maryland Newspapers Join Paywall Ranks
The Gazette, Dec 5, 2011, 3:30 PM EST
The Baltimore Sun and Carroll County Times recently joined a handful of other papers in the state by implementing a metered paywalls. Link | Add comment
NAA's Little: Paywalls Are 'Encouraging'
Advertising Age, Dec 2, 2011, 7:38 AM EST
Newspaper Association of America CEO Caroline Little: "I can't speak to every paper but I do think that unlike three years ago, people are acknowledging the value of newspapers. Especially with so many different delivery devices, you can have it anywhere, anytime, how you want it and when you want it. It's really interesting to see the different models evolving, whether it's the metered model or the gated model. But I think it's encouraging." Link | Add comment
Brunswick News Erects Paywalls In Canada
J-Source.ca, Nov 30, 2011, 3:06 PM EST
Brunswick News Inc. will begin charging readers to access the news at its 18 English-language newspapers and eight editions of the French-language newspaper L'Etoile in New Brunswick. The paywalls are said to be Canada's first. Link | Add comment
Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Bundled Sub Plans Turn News Into Cable TV
Poynter, Nov 21, 2011, 8:31 AM EST
Poynter's Rick Edmonds on how the practice of bundling print and digital into one subscription plan: "To my mind, the [International Newsmedia Marketing Association] advances the great paywall debate by refocusing it. The 'wall' and its cousin, 'the metered model,' make it sound as if the main point is to create a barrier to freeloaders. The better objective is to find the right mix of digital offers at the right price points to stabilize and grow subscription numbers and revenue." Link | Add comment
AJC Adds iPad 'Digital Combo'; Site Still Free
PaidContent, Nov 14, 2011, 3:51 PM EST
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is launching a new paid iPad app and digital replica edition that will cost $2.99 per month for print subscribers and $9.99 per month for non-subscribers. Access to the site remains free. Link | Add comment
Cole: Media Can Survive Without Paywalls
Technology Spectator, Nov 9, 2011, 8:45 AM EST
Jeffrey Cole, director  of the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, believes it’s targeted advertising that will save the media industry, not paywalls. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Minn. Star Tribune Paywall
Paywall, Tablets Not Sure Savior For Strib
MinnPost, Nov 9, 2011, 8:38 AM EST
John Reinan on the Minnesota Star Tribune's decision to erect a paywall: "Tablets and paywalls are the best options available to the newspaper business right now, and the Star Tribune is wise to promote them. The Strib is among the early adopters at this stage, and it's a smart place for the paper to be. But it's by no means certain that tablets and paywalls will ensure the organization's future." Link | Add comment
Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Paywall May Have Aided Globe's Sunday Circ
Mass. Market, Nov 8, 2011, 8:43 AM EST
The latest numbers, released last week by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, indicate that The Boston Globe's new paywall has helped increase the newspaper's Sunday circulation. Link | Add comment
Star Trib Expects $4M In Rev From Paywall
Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Nov 1, 2011, 2:11 PM EDT
Michael Klingensmith, publisher of Minnesota's Star Tribune, says the newspaper's new paywall is expected to add up to $4 million a year in revenue. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
If Paywall Is Your Only Tactic, You're Doomed
GigaOM, Oct 31, 2011, 2:04 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "there is no guarantee that those paywall subscriber numbers will continue to grow, and in fact there is reason to believe (given the history of similar attempts) that they will soon level off and stop growing. So it is by definition a stop-gap strategy, which is why newspapers that are relying solely on a paywall to save their bacon are likely doomed." Link | Add comment
Postmedia To Expand Paywall Experiment
Metro, Oct 31, 2011, 2:04 PM EDT
Postmedia Network Canada Corp. said Friday it will roll out a plan to charge readers for online content at more of its newspapers as it struggles with lower advertising and print circulation income. Postmedia had previously launched test pay-per-view programs at the Montreal Gazette and the recently sold Victoria Times Colonist. Link | Add comment
UK's Independent Debuts Paywall, Paid App
The Wall Blog, Oct 31, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT
Starting today, users accessing the website of U.K. newspaper The Independent from the United States and Canada will have to pay. The site remains free in the United Kingdom. The newspaper also launched a new app that will cost 19.99 pounds ($32). Link | Add comment
Paywall Money Not Enough To Help NY Times
Yahoo News, Oct 27, 2011, 3:18 PM EDT
The New York Times' paywall is unlikely to collect enough revenue to offset a long-running decline in the newspaper's print advertising, according to Citigroup analyst Leo Kulp, who downgraded his rating on the stock of The New York Times Co. from "Buy" to "Neutral." Link | Add comment
Star Tribune Sites, Apps To Get Paywall
MinnPost, Oct 27, 2011, 7:59 AM EDT
The Minneapolis Star Tibune will launch a metered paywall on Nov. 1. Readers will be able to access up to 20 stories per month for free before hitting the paywall. The newspaper's tablet app will also be restricted to the paper's print and digital subscribers. Link | Add comment
Digital Sub Growth: A Tale Of Two 'Times'
PaidContent, Oct 24, 2011, 8:42 AM EDT
The New York Times and News Corp.'s The Times have both launched paywalls within the past year and a half, and while The Times of London has grown its digital subscribers at a slow and steady rate, The New York Times has seen digital subscribership skyrocket since March, according to PaidContent analysis.
  Link | Add comment
Newsonomics of Piano Media
Piano Model Makes Sense On Regional Level
Nieman Journalism Lab, Oct 21, 2011, 6:24 AM EDT
Ken Doctor on Piano Media, the company that put Slovakia online media outlets behind a single paywall: "The biggest takeaway for larger countries with larger publishers is the thought about scarcity. Round up a critical mass of newsy content and you may find a few percent of digital users willing to pay. Put aside nations of 50 or 300 million. Think about regions, combining newspaper, TV, and magazine companies. Think about certain kinds of topical content, which could be corralled into consumer packages that might make consumer sense." Link | Add comment
NYT: Digital Subscribers Up 45% Since June
Associated Press, Oct 20, 2011, 2:25 PM EDT
The New York Times' focus on digital subscriptions is starting to pay off. According to the company's third quarter earnings report, it ended the quarter with 324,000 paid digital New York Times subscribers, up 45% from 224,000 subscribers as of June 26, which helped boost circulation revenue 3% during the quarter. Full Story | Add comment
Paywalls and Pay Strategies
SME's Kostolny: Raise The Wall, Experiment
Editors Weblog, Oct 20, 2011, 8:44 AM EDT
Matúš Kostolný, editor in chief of SME in Slovakia, speaking at the World Editors Forum: "Don't be afraid to raise the wall and experiment. ... We raised the wall in May this year and we have to change it constantly, but you have to start somewhere and remain open and flexible." Link | Add comment
LA Times Could Be Headed To A Paywall
Ed Padgett, Oct 20, 2011, 8:34 AM EDT
Los Angeles Times pressman Ed Padgett suggest in his blog that the newspaper's recent dip in circulation could make a future paywall inevitable. Link | Add comment
Washington Post: No Paywalls In The Plans
Politico, Oct 20, 2011, 8:21 AM EDT
Despite recent financial woes, The Washington Post has taken a firm stand when it comes to paywalls: Let The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, with their national distributions and elite readerships, charge their online customers at the door. We’re going to stay free. Link | Add comment
News Corp.'s Australian To Launch Paywall
The Australian, Oct 20, 2011, 8:09 AM EDT
News Corp.'s Australian national daily newspaper The Australian has announced it will launch digital subscriptions on Monday, with a three-month free trial for all readers. Link | Add comment
Dallas Paper: We're Not Discontinuing Daily
Poynter, Oct 19, 2011, 6:58 AM EDT
James Moroney, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, reacts to the paper's vice president of audience Mark Medici's comment during a speech at the Inland Press Association that the newspaper wouldn't print seven days a week in three years: "Whether a misstatement or a misunderstanding, what we do know is that we have never come to a conclusion that we would be discontinuing seven days of the printed edition of The Dallas Morning News." Link | Add comment
BostonGlobe.com Ends Free Trial
NetNewsCheck, Oct 18, 2011, 3:30 PM EDT
The paid subscription model for BostonGlobe.com, the new online home of The Boston Globe, will launch Wednesday, Oct. 19, at 5 a.m. Full Story | Add comment
In UK, Digital Subs Rise 10% For The Times
Guardian, Oct 18, 2011, 7:41 AM EDT
The number of people paying for a digital version of the Times has risen 10% in the past three months to just over 110,000, according to new Audit Bureau of Circulation sales figures. Its stablemate, the Sunday Times has seen a similar rise over the quarter, bringing subscriber numbers to 105,600. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Planning A Paywall? Try eBooks Instead
GigaOM, Oct 12, 2011, 7:41 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "With iPad apps and eBooks that can be published quickly on Amazon's Kindle platform, however, publishers can pull together a collection around a news event and sell it quickly. So publishers can benefit in two ways: They can take advantage of the short-term interest in content they have already produced, and they can also easily put together packages like The New Yorker has done, that appeal to a broader and less time-sensitive reader." Link | Add comment
Baltimore Sun Paywall Launches Today
PaidContent, Oct 10, 2011, 2:20 PM EDT
The Baltimore Sun today erected its new metered paywall for print and non-print subscribers. Digital subscriptions will cost $2.49 per week or $49.99 for 26 weeks for non-print subscribers, and $0.75 per week or $29.99 per year for print subscribers. Link | Add comment
Independent Adds Paywall Outside The UK
Guardian, Oct 10, 2011, 7:07 AM EDT
The Independent is to launch a paywall for non-UK readers, as well as a top-priced iPad application, in a strategy designed to reinforce its credentials as a premium multimedia newspaper. Link | Add comment
Firm Behind Slovakia Paywall Lands Funding
NetNewsCheck, Sep 30, 2011, 3:19 PM EDT
Lehigh Valley's Morning Call To Erect Paywall
The Morning Call, Sep 26, 2011, 8:40 AM EDT
The Morning Call, covering Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, will begin charging readers for digital content, starting Oct. 10. Digital subscriptions will be available at an introductory rate of 99 cents for the first four weeks. After that, digital subscribers will pay $2.49 a week or $49.99 for half a year. Link | Add comment
Commentary
App Economy Could Be Killing Online Pubs
GigaOM, Sep 26, 2011, 7:13 AM EDT
Yaron Galai, CEO and co-founder of Outbrain: "When developing a mobile app, a publisher technically becomes a node within someone else's platform -- namely Apple or Google -- and is bound by their rules and whims. ... Developing an app for someone else's platform might give the illusion of a new marketing channel, but in reality it means becoming a node in someone else's business model." Link | Add comment
CBS Puts Paywall On '48 Hours' iPad App
MediaPost, Sep 22, 2011, 4:02 PM EDT
It doesn't take long for the "free" download of CBS Interactive's "48 Hours Mystery" app for iPad to rush you toward the subscription wall. Without the $4.99 annual fee, the user is met with a preview video clip of the next week's episode and a bonus clip. Beyond that, be prepared to get out your wallet. Link | Add comment
NYT Paywall: 12% Of Subs Are International
PaidContent, Sep 22, 2011, 7:23 AM EDT
In a conversation at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson declined to provide an update on the number of digital subscribers, but did say that about 88% are domestic and 12% are international. Link | Add comment
Boston Globe Launches Subscription Site
Reuters, Sep 12, 2011, 2:20 PM EDT
The Boston Globe today launched its new paid site, BostonGlobe.com, marking its official entrance into the digital subscription market. All readers will be able to access the new site's content free of charge until the end of September, at which point the paywall will go up. Consumers can pay $3.99 a week for a digital subscription while print subscribers are granted free access. Link | Add comment
Three Papers Erect Paywalls With New Twists
PaidContent, Sep 6, 2011, 2:17 PM EDT
New London, Conn.'s The Day is promoting its new paywall as a "membership program," with benefits beyond online content. And the Southeast Missourian and Richmond Times-Dispatch appear to be the first two newspapers to use Google One Pass technology, which the company rolled out in February. Link | Add comment
Times Record News Adds Metered Paywall
PaidContent, Sep 1, 2011, 3:34 PM EDT
Scripps-owned Times Record News in Northern Texas beginning today will add a metered paywall. Daily subscribers receive online access for free. Nonsubscribers will have access to 10 free articles per month. Link | Add comment
For Paywalls, Successful Models Emerge
eMedia Vitals, Aug 30, 2011, 2:49 PM EDT
News sites have launched a variety of different online paywall models this year, some with more success than others. There's no one way that works for every local market, but a few best practices are emerging for any news publisher to consider before charging for digital content. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Will Providence Paper's Paywall Work?
GoLocalProv, Aug 29, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Jeff Derderian on Belo's paywall plans at Rhode Island's Providence Journal: "Do you really think people are going to shell out $400.00, $500.00 or $600.00 per year here in little Rhody to read The Providence Journal in printed and online form? This writer says no way." Link | Add comment
Hurricane Irene Blows Through Paywalls
Editors Weblog, Aug 29, 2011, 8:20 AM EDT
Hurricane Irene coverage temporarily altered the business models of several news organizations, as some news sites dropped their paywalls to allow readers access to storm related coverage. Link | Add comment
3 Papers Find Success With Metered Paywalls
eMedia Vitals, Aug 26, 2011, 7:16 AM EDT
The Concord Monitor, The Augusta Chronicle and the Tulsa World have shown increases in unique visitors using metered paywalls similar to that of The New York Times. Link | Add comment
Viewers Vexed By Fox's TV Paywall
NewTeeVee, Aug 23, 2011, 7:17 AM EDT
A little over a week after Fox instituted its eight-day delay for non-authenticated viewers of its shows online, BitTorrent has seen a dramatic rise in the number of viewers downloading the broadcaster's shows. Link | Add comment
Commentary
NYT's 'Leaky Paywall' Is An Effective Formula
Poynter, Aug 16, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Jeff Sonderman: "It turns out people will pay for things even when payment is not required. Motivations such as convenience, duty or appreciation are more compelling than coercion." Link | Add comment
Why The NYT's Paywall Is Not Like The FT's
Reuters, Aug 15, 2011, 3:14 PM EDT
Felix Salmon: "The difference between [The New York Times] and the [Financial Times], then, is that the porousness of the paywall is a feature at the NYT and a bug at the FT." Link | Add comment
MediaNews Raises Paywalls For Its Papers
Denver Business Journal, Aug 15, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT
Denver-based national newspaper publisher MediaNews Group is launching a paid-subscription system for certain online content offered by more than two dozen of its papers in five states. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Ingram: NYT Paywall Is 'A Line Of Sandbags'
GigaOM, Aug 15, 2011, 8:00 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "[The New York Times paywall is] just charging people nickels and dimes for their paper ... In that sense, it’s not really a strategy at all; it’s more like a line of sandbags designed to shore up the print business and squeeze as much money out of it as possible as it declines. A wise move? Perhaps. Something to get excited about? No." Link | Add comment
UK's Mirror Group To Charge For Some Content
PaidContent, Aug 12, 2011, 12:48 PM EDT
Commentary
How The NY Times Paywall Is Working
Reuters, Aug 12, 2011, 12:43 PM EDT
Felix Simon on The New York Times paywall: "[The NYT] paywall marks a new model and very promising in getting consumers to pay for content. It’s not a completely free pay-as-you-wish approach: the NYT nudges people quite hard to pay quite a lot of money. But I’d wager that the majority of people buying digital-only subscriptions are doing so only after bypassing the paywall at least once or twice." Link | Add comment
Brauchli: No Plans For A WashPo Paywall
NetNewsCheck, Aug 12, 2011, 7:57 AM EDT
Washington Post editor Marcus Brauchli, speaking at the Asian American Journalists Association convention in Detroit, said the newspaper won't be putting up a paywall any time soon, according to Poynter's Jim Romenesko. "We are quite content being the largest free premium newspaper online," Brauchli said. | Add comment
Onion CTO: Paywall Is Only An Experiment
Nieman Journalism Lab, Aug 9, 2011, 7:39 AM EDT
Fake news source The Onion last week rolled out a metered paywall for non-U.S. readers, but according to the company's chief technology officer Michael Greer, it's only a test: "By ‘test,’ we sincerely mean it. We want to know how people respond and act." Link | Add comment
A Paywall Showdown In Honolulu
Nieman Journalism Lab, Aug 8, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Last week, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser began charging for online content. Combine this with the fact that the Honolulu Civil Beat, the Web-native site that sees itself as a newspaper-esque competitor, is also a subscription-based news site, and things are setting up for a good, old-fashioned news war in the Pacific. Link | Add comment
Znak Launches Content Monetization Platform
NetNewsCheck, Aug 8, 2011, 2:20 PM EDT
The Onion Puts Up Paywall For Non-U.S. Readers
PaidContent, Aug 5, 2011, 2:13 PM EDT
9 Reasons Papers Charge Print Subs For Web
Poynter, Aug 4, 2011, 8:12 AM EDT
After years of searching for a workable paid digital content model, a wave of small and mid-sized newspapers have all hit on the same solution: Ask print subscribers to pay just a little more to get full Web site access. Link | Add comment
Honolulu Star-Advertiser Turns On Paywall
PaidContent, Aug 3, 2011, 1:28 PM EDT
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaii’s largest daily newspaper, started charging for online content today. A digital subscription includes full access to all of the content and archives on staradvertiser.com and a digital replica of the printed newspaper that can be read on computers and mobile devices. Link | Add comment
Dow Jones Exec: What People Will Pay For
INMA, Aug 2, 2011, 2:44 PM EDT
Lynne Brennen, Dow Jones Co. senior vice president of circulation, breaks content into five attributes and ranks them by a reader's willingness to pay for each. Link | Add comment
Lee Papers Adopt Metered Paywalls
PaidContent, Aug 2, 2011, 2:12 PM EDT
Six Lee Enterprises newspapers in Montana and Wyoming -- the Missoulian, Ravalli Republic, Billings Gazette, Helena Independent Record, Montana Standard and Casper Star Tribune -- are adopting a metered pay model on their Web sites. Even print subscribers will have to pay a small charge to read above a certain number of articles online -- but they do get a discount. The paywalls are run by RR Donnelly’s Press+ service. Link | Add comment
Longshot Magazine Tests Out a 'Nagwall'
The Awl, Aug 2, 2011, 7:53 AM EDT
Longshot, a new magazine that's written, built and published in 48 hours, is trying out a new kind of paywall for its Web site. It's "nagwall" appears after a good amount of browsing -- a good deal can be read before it pops up -- and asks readers to consider giving one of two ways: to share the site with a friend or to donate money. Link | Add comment
Commentary
New York Times Paywall Is Working
Reuters, Jul 27, 2011, 8:02 AM EDT
Felix Salmon: "The media business has never been about denying access to people who want to read your publication, but the paywalls at News Corp, as well as the one at the [Financial Times], are based around that model. [The New York Times], by contrast, has proven that people will pay even if the paywall is extremely porous." Link | Add comment
NYT: The Kingdom And The Paywall
New York Magazine, Jul 25, 2011, 6:42 AM EDT
Despite years of predictions that The New York Times would cease to be under the leadership of Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the newspaper has weathered several crises, but its digital-subscription plan -- the famous “paywall” -- has helped the newspaper improve it fortunes. Link | Add comment
Honolulu Star-Advertiser Sets Digital Plans
NetNewsCheck, Jul 25, 2011, 6:42 AM EDT
Digital subscriptions will roll out August 3 and will be free to existing print subscribers and will include full access to staradvertiser.com, an e-edition, iPad and smartphone apps, as well as full access to the paper’s archive. Full Story | Add comment
Time Rolls Out Digital Subscription Plan
All Things Digital, Jul 19, 2011, 2:41 PM EDT
Time is rolling out an “all-access” plan on Thursday that  will give readers a chance to purchase bundles that will give them access to the magazine in multiple formats: Print editions delivered to their mailboxes, app versions beamed to their iPads and other tablets, and Web versions at Time.com. The plan is similar to one rolled out by sibling publication Sports Illustrated earlier this year. Link | Add comment
NYT: E-Mail Outpaces Social Media In Sharing
PaidContent, Jul 13, 2011, 2:52 PM EDT
The New York Times, in a study of who shares links to the newspaper's content, found that e-mail is still the most popular sharing tool, surpassing social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Link | Add comment
NYT Allows Subs To Share Digital Access
Nieman Journalism Lab, Jul 7, 2011, 6:46 AM EDT
Slovakian Pubs' Paywall Appears To Be Success
Advertising Age, Jul 5, 2011, 1:55 PM EDT
Cannes Lions Media Festival
Paywall Successes Win Converts In Cannes
Bloomberg, Jun 24, 2011, 1:54 PM EDT
Online news, video and music providers are becoming increasingly open to charging for at least part of their content as paywall experiments by pioneers such as London’s Times show that some customers will pay. Alex Hole, who manages the Times' digital strategy, said at the Cannes Lions media conference this week that the newspaper's paywall is "starting to see tangible returns." Link | Add comment
Commentary
NY Times Paywall Could Work Better
PBS MediaShift, Jun 24, 2011, 6:54 AM EDT
Teeming Media's Dorian Benkoil: "[The New York Times] could boost its revenue further by using ad targeting technologies to try to get more page views from people who are of more value to high-priced advertisers. The same ad targeting technologies could be used to identify users to show them relevant ads, and let people identified as having higher income and education levels through without showing them the gate after they've reached a 20-article limit." Link | Add comment
The Independent's 'i' Inks Erects A 'Beerwall' In UK
PaidContent, Jun 21, 2011, 8:30 AM EDT
Two Illinois Papers Put Up Paywalls
News & Tech, Jun 16, 2011, 7:48 AM EDT
GateHouse Media-owned Illinois newspapers the Register-Mail (Galesburg) and The Journal-Standard (Freeport) launched metered paywalls on June 15. Readers will be able to view up to 20 articles per month before hitting the paywall. Link | Add comment
Digital Subs Will Lift Mags, But Not Papers
Forbes, Jun 15, 2011, 7:38 AM EDT
Newspaper and magazine publishers are banking on tablet-based electronic editions and paywalls to bring in digital subscriptions and help offset the erosion in circulation revenue. But PricewaterhouseCoopers' latest annual media outlook suggests that it may be the right course for magazines but not for newspapers. Link | Add comment
Google App Store Opens Door In WSJ Paywall
VentureBeat, Jun 13, 2011, 8:02 AM EDT
A new app in the Chrome store, Read WSJ, lets users get access to stories protected by the paywall without paying for a subscription The Wall Street Journal. Link | Add comment
NYT Paywall Helps Boost Print Subscriptions
Business Insider, Jun 10, 2011, 2:44 PM EDT
The New York Times paywall has led to an increase in print subscriptions for the newspaper. Henry Blodget: "The New York Times' digital paywall is not only helping the digital business develop a meaningful new revenue stream ... It's helping to sustain the paper's core print business." Link | Add comment
FT: We Won’t Publish A ‘Dumb’ iPad App
Nieman Journalism Lab, Jun 9, 2011, 3:42 PM EDT
TinyPass Simplifies Paying For Content
Editor & Publisher, Jun 9, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
The new service from Hudson Media Ventures will help small publishers that can't afford to develop their own paywalls charge for their online content. Link | Add comment
New Financial Times App Bypasses Apple
All Things Digital, Jun 7, 2011, 3:47 PM EDT
The Financial Times, an outspoken opponents of Apple's new iTunes subscription rules, has created an HTML5-based Web app that lets it deliver the paper to iPad and iPhone users, and sell them subscriptions, without going through iTunes. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Ingram: Paywalls Are Still A Bad Idea
GigaOM, Jun 7, 2011, 7:05 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram: "The biggest flaw [in a paywall] from a business perspective, particularly for smaller newspapers, is that walling up your content is an invitation to free competitors -- from AOL's Patch.com and Huffington Post to Mainstreet Connect and Neighborhoodr and Topix.net -- to come and take away your readers." Link | Add comment
NYT Rewards Subs With Exclusive Content
Nieman Journalism Lab, Jun 6, 2011, 9:00 AM EDT
Membership does have its privileges: The New York Times e-mailed its paying subscribers an exclusive look behind the paper's coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Analyzing The Metered Model
Monday Note, Jun 6, 2011, 7:46 AM EDT
French ePresse consortium general manager Frédéric Filloux: "For the meter, finding the right setting is far from trivial. ... Metered systems are the opposite of the one-size-fits-all." Link | Add comment
Research
Small Papers Lead The Way With Pay Efforts
Reynolds Journalism Institute, Jun 3, 2011, 7:26 AM EDT
A new survey by the Missouri School of Journalism’s Center for Advanced Social Research found that among newspapers with circulation under 25,000, 46% are charging for some online content. Only 24% of their larger counterparts are charging. However, the larger papers are leading the way with mobile phone apps (62% have them) and tablet apps (39%). Link | Comments (1)
Commentary
Niche Media Will Need Pay Models To Survive
Advertising Age, May 31, 2011, 4:05 PM EDT
Vindicia CEO Gene Hoffman: "Advertising businesses need 10's of millions of daily viewers to support a $10M annual business. Subscription and virtual currency businesses need but 100,000 subscribers paying an average of $10 a month to reach the same revenue." Link | Add comment
Lincoln Subs Get 80% Off NYT iPad App
PaidContent, May 31, 2011, 3:34 PM EDT
The New York Times is supplementing the marketing deal with automaker Lincoln that offered free access to NYTimes.com and mobile apps by offering a $35 iPad add on to the roughly 100,000 comp subscriptions for the rest of the year. Link | Add comment
NYT Heir Could Win Big If Paywall Succeeds
Adweek, May 31, 2011, 3:34 PM EDT
David Perpich, heir to The New York Times' Ochs-Sulzberger family, who helped the newspaper with its digital innovation efforts, could have the most to gain if the Times' paywall is a success. Link | Add comment
Commentary: The Problem With Paywalls
Readers Have Never Paid For 'News'
Huffington Post Canada, May 31, 2011, 6:59 AM EDT
Alfred Hermida on newspaper paywalls: "People have never really paid for the news. By news, I mean the political infighting in city halls or the violence in faraway foreign places -- the news that is important and matters but can be challenging to make relevant to a broad audience. Readers were paying for the sport results, the lifestyle section, diversions like the crossword and horoscopes." Link | Add comment
INMA World Congress
After Paywall, Sulzberger Eyes Social Media
INMA, May 18, 2011, 8:36 AM EDT
Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, on the paper's social efforts: "The world is moving to social, and you've got to be part of the discussion. That's what drove us. ... We need to make sure we are part of the conversation and part of the linking, and the monetization will build." Link | Add comment
Q&A with Evercore's Douglas Arthur
Arthur: Paywalls Are 'A Survival Issue'
Columbia Journalism Review, May 18, 2011, 8:36 AM EDT
Evercore managing director Douglas Arthur on paywalls: "It’s not a foray--it’s a survival issue. It’s not fun and games. [Traditional newspapers have] got to find new ways of getting paid, or they’re not going to be able to support the expensive journalism. It’s just that simple." Link | Add comment
NC Paper Puts Up Metered Paywall
The Fayetteville Observer, May 17, 2011, 3:28 PM EDT
The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer on Monday began charging for access to some content on its site. Readers hit the metered paywall after reading 20 articles in a 30-day period. Blogs, photographs and videos are not behind the wall. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Paywall Lessons From Smaller Papers
Nieman Journalism Lab, May 16, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
Justin Ellis: "The size advantage for small and mid-sized papers may translate into a tighter connection with their readership, which in turn can help them explain their online subscription models to their readership." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Forbes' Digital Approach Should Be Mimicked
Telegraph, May 16, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
Emma Barnett: "The answer is not to look down or dismiss the importance of digital within any enterprise if a business or an individual is to survive, never mind thrive. It is tool up and keep on learning." Link | Add comment
Newsonomics of the dipsy-doo
Readers Prefer Print/Digital Combos
Nieman Journalism Lab, May 12, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "Readers have quickly figured out it's better to order some print edition and get 'included' digital access than to just pay for digital access. Lead customers one way -- and then do a quick turn on them." Link | Add comment
Steve Forbes: Paywalls Can't Pay The Way
PaidContent, May 12, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes: "Even if you have a successful paywall, the revenue you get will not come close to matching what you're going to get on the advertising side." Link | Add comment
A 'Business Class' Could Help Papers Online
PaidContent, May 11, 2011, 3:00 PM EDT
Victor Wong, CEO of ad-tech company PaperG, on Oliver Reichenstein's blog post on creating a "business class" for online news: "Providing free news online will continue to be a necessity, but newspapers need to start improving and differentiating experiences on their Web sites to capture the different economic value of users. Adding a business class is just the first step in getting newspapers to take off online." Link | Add comment
NYT Share Of Web Traffic Hits 12-Month Low
Advertising Age, May 11, 2011, 2:20 PM EDT
The New York TImes' share of U.S. pages views for all newspaper sites dropped to 10.6% in April -- its first full month behind the paywall -- down from 13% in March, its lowest point in 12 months, according to comScore. Link | Comments (1)
FT Still In Talks With Apple About iPad Subs
PaidContent, May 10, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
The Financial Times is still in discussions with Apple over falling in line with the computer company's in-app purchasing plans. The sticking point for the newspaper is over who holds consumer data. Link | Add comment
News Corp.: No Paywall For UK's Sun
PaidContent, May 10, 2011, 8:29 AM EDT
commentary
Creating A 'Business Class' For Online News
Information Architects, May 6, 2011, 3:03 PM EDT
Oliver Reichenstein on creating  a different online news experience for paying readers: "The idea of creating a business class for online news where is not about buying information, but buying better experience, it's about service and customer experience. That's right: Customer (paying), not user (free)." Link | Add comment
European Newspapers Reluctant To Raise Paywalls
IOL, May 6, 2011, 2:31 PM EDT
Commentary
Paywalls Will Disengage Student Readers
The Hofstra Chronicle, May 6, 2011, 3:03 PM EDT
Hofstra University student Andrea Ordonez: "Today's young people are not civically engaged in terms of politics and current events. How much less engaged will they be when all news outlets set up paywalls?" Link | Add comment
UK Paper Goes With Apple Subs For iPad App
PaidContent, May 5, 2011, 3:07 PM EDT
The Daily Telegraph's new iPad app -- launched today -- is free to download but requires "editions" be bought inside via Apple's in-app payments. Link | Add comment
NYT Digi Chief: 300K Sub Goal ‘Inaccurate’
BBC, May 4, 2011, 3:08 PM EDT
Martin Nisenholtz, head of The New York Times' digital operations, said that the reported goal of reaching 300,000 digital subscribers by the end of the year is inaccurate. "I don't know where that number came from. ... We have not released any targets to the public," he said. PaidContent's Staci Kramer notes that the number was published in The New York Times: “The Times will not say publicly how many online subscribers it hopes to get. But company executives have said privately that the goal for the first year is 300,000,” Jeremy Peters wrote in March. The interview of Nisenholtz begins at minute 18.] Link | Add comment
Belo To Expand Paywalls In R.I., Calif.
News & Tech, May 3, 2011, 3:31 PM EDT
A.H. Belo will put into place paywalls at The Providence (R.I.) Journal and The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., expanding the digital subscription initiative it launched earlier this year at The Dallas Morning News. Link | Add comment
NYT Paywall Doesn't Open For Bin Laden
Nieman Journalism Lab, May 2, 2011, 4:14 PM EDT
When The New York Times' paywall went up in March, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said the paywall could be opened when a big story hits, allowing users to read as much coverage as they want. However, The Times paywall remained up when the biggest news story story since its launch -- the death of Osama bin Laden -- broke last night. Link | Add comment
Tiny Pass Has Solution For Paywall Problems
Business Insider, Apr 28, 2011, 3:27 PM EDT
Tiny Pass, the latest project from Hudson Media Ventures, is a micropayment platform that allows publishers to indicate the content they want to charge users for, how much they want to charge, and how long the access will last. It then delivers said content after users simply and quickly pay for the privilege. Link | Add comment
Sulzberger: Dangerous Journalism Is Worth It
Adweek, Apr 28, 2011, 7:53 AM EDT
At the New York Times Co.’s annual meeting on Wednesday, chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. talked up the paper's new paywall and alluded to the kidnapping of its journalists in Libya: "Dangerous and complicated stories are worth paying for.” Link | Add comment
In Slovakia, News Pubs Take Cue From Cable
The New York Times, Apr 25, 2011, 7:14 AM EDT
In Slovakia, news publishers are borrowing the cable TV business model and are bundling their Web sites to create a more diverse offering. For 2.90 euros ($4.20) a month, starting in May, users will get full access to the Web sites of the two leading broadsheets, SME and Pravda. Also included will be the sites of business and sports newspapers, magazines, a television network, online video portals and a media news service. Link | Add comment
NYT's Meter Vs. The London Times Paywall
PaidContent, Apr 25, 2011, 7:03 AM EDT
The New York Times recently erected a metered "pay fence" that charges some readers for access to the site but still allows non-subscribers to read articles, while The Times of London opted for a paywall that has deliberately shed the vast majority of its visitors. While the U.K. paper is pitching to advertisers the quality of its smaller audience, the NY Times is employing a "have-your-cake-and-eat-it strategy." Link | Add comment
NYT CEO: Paywall Will Cost $13M In 2011
PaidContent, Apr 21, 2011, 3:18 PM EDT
The New York Times Co. president and CEO Janet Robinson expects that incremental costs associated with the paywall will be $13 million over the course of 2011. Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Early Numbers Nice, But Growth Is Nicer
Nieman Journalism Lab, Apr 21, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Nieman Journalism Labs' Joshua Benton on The New York Times' claims to 100,000 digital subscriptions: "The most important question, I think, is one we're not any closer to answering: not where that number is today, but what the growth curve will look like over time." Link | Add comment
NYT Quarterly report
NY Times: We've Passed 100K Digital Subs
NetNewsCheck, Apr 21, 2011, 2:23 PM EDT
The New York Times Co. in its first-quarter earnings report released today said that its paywall launched late last month has already generated more than 100,000 digital subscribers. Full Story | Add comment
Paywall Is Key To NYT's Survival
Adweek, Apr 19, 2011, 8:17 AM EDT
The New York Times Co. will have good news to report at its annual meeting next week: It ended 2010 with $400 million in cash. But most of that money came from the company's decision to offload real estate and its stake in the Boston Red Sox. Many analysts believe the key to the Times' future success is its digital  pay strategy. Link | Add comment
Financial Times: Digital Subs Up 8% In 2011
PaidContent, Apr 18, 2011, 8:27 AM EDT
Slovak Media Erect A Nationwide Paywall
Nieman Journalism Lab, Apr 15, 2011, 3:24 PM EDT
Commentary: News Org paywalls
Paywalls Change Social Media Strategies
Mashable, Apr 14, 2011, 8:08 AM EDT
Mashable's Meghan Peters: "Accessing news articles from social media, blogs and other sites has become increasingly common, making an unexpected paywall an unpleasant reader experience. Maintaining the happiness of subscribers and non-subscribers alike has fallen on the shoulders of community managers at these paywalled sites." Link | Add comment
NYT Traffic Dips After Paywall Goes Up
NetNewsCheck, Apr 12, 2011, 8:52 AM EDT
A new study from online intelligence firm Experian Hitwise found that visits and page views for The New York Times Web site decreased after the site activated its paywall on March 28. The firm compared total visits and total page views during the 12 days prior and the 12 days following the paywall's launch. Total visits to NYTimes.com slipped 5% to 15% after the paywall went up, Hitwise director of research Heather Dougherty wrote in a blog post, while page views dropped 11% to 30% during the same period. | Add comment
NYT's Nocera: No Magic Bullet Yet For Papers
WPRI.com, Apr 12, 2011, 8:27 AM EDT
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera: "The regional papers are going to have the most difficulty -- The Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times, The Boston Globe. The Detroit News used to have a circulation of 750,000 and now it has a circulation of 250,000. I mean, what’s happening to regional newspapers is they’re being decimated. ... The outlook is not great for those papers unless they come up with some magic bullet, and they haven’t yet." Link | Add comment
NYT Pitches Metered Access On TV
PaidContent, Apr 11, 2011, 8:18 AM EDT
The New York Times has rolled out its first two television advertisements in its efforts to inform and change reader perception of its new digital pay plan. The second ad can be seen here.  
Link | Add comment
NYT-Lincoln Deal Is About Dollars, Traffic
Newsonomics, Apr 8, 2011, 3:24 PM EDT
Ken Doctor says The New York Times' deal with Ford Motors' Lincoln is more nuanced than it seems: "It’s just one deal, but it points to the fact that the new business model in creation will be based more on digital advertising than digital circulation. Making that new interplay work is as important as setting prices and deciding how to restrict content accces for anyone putting up a paywall, pay fence or pay obstacle of any kind." Link | Add comment
Why NYT Paywall Rev Estimates Are Wrong
Scout Analytics, Apr 8, 2011, 8:36 AM EDT
Acout Analytics Matt Shanahan says the primary logic used by the naysayers of The New York Times paywall is that not enough people will pay the minimum $195/year. But predictions of revenue based on consumer payment is simply wrong. By ditching the anchor price of free, the NYT paywall creates at least three new sources of revenue. Link | Add comment
Providence Journal Considers Paywall
The Brown Daily Herald, Apr 7, 2011, 2:57 PM EDT
The Belo-owned Providence Journalfirst announced its intention to limit online content to paying subscribers and update its Web site in November 2009, but never set an actual launch date. Last month's promotion of then-vice president of business and interactive development Deborah Tomilson to oversee its online strategy could signal that the paywall is coming soon for a paper that lost 10% of its print subscribers in the last year. Link | Add comment
NYT Paywall Cost: Closer To $25M
PaidContent, Apr 7, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT
NYT: $40M Paywall Cost Estimate Is ‘Wrong’
PaidContent, Apr 6, 2011, 7:11 AM EDT
Arthur Sulzberger Jr., during a Q&A at Columbia University, said the reports that The New York Times spent $40 million on its paywall were inaccurate: “I’m happy to tell you it’s vastly wrong, it was much less. Don’t use that number. It’s not accurate.” Link | Add comment
Schiller: Readers Are Ready For Paywalls
Austin American-Statesman, Apr 5, 2011, 8:50 AM EDT
Former NPR chief Vivian Schiller during her speech at the International Symposium on Online Journalism Friday cited data from the Pew Research Center to suggest that news paywalls, such as one just launched by The New York Times, are finally ready to be given "a fair shake" by readers. Link | Add comment
San Francisco Chronicle To Put Up Paywall
The Bay Citizen, Apr 5, 2011, 8:44 AM EDT
San Francisco Chronicle owner Hearst Corp. has told employees that it intends to roll out a paywall for sfgate.com along with a digital subscription plan for the newspaper's new iPad application. The new digital strategy could be rolled out by as early as the end of the month. Link | Add comment
Apple Sub Plan Hits Industry Push-Back
San Jose Mercury News, Apr 5, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT
For Apple's plan ostensibly designed to help ailing print publishers sign up new readers and thrive in the digital jungle, the Cupertino giant's new subscription model has met with push-back from the industry, mixed reviews from analysts, and rants from bloggers calling the company everything from monopolist to Mafioso. Link | Add comment
FT Won't Give Up Sub Relationship To Apple
Reuters, Apr 4, 2011, 3:27 PM EDT
The Financial Times wants to keep selling subscriptions for its digital news directly to readers rather than surrender control of new customers who sign up via Apple's iPad, according to FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw. Link | Add comment
Sorrell: Consumers Should Pay For Content
Newsweek, Apr 4, 2011, 3:27 PM EDT
Sir MartinSorrell, head of ad agency WPP Group, comes down in favor of The New York Times' new paywall, "Advertising-only models don’t work ... There isn’t enough advertising to go around. Period." He adds, "Consumers must pay for content if they value it." Link | Add comment
NYT Clean Washed Away By Times Legal
Nieman Journalism Lab, Apr 1, 2011, 2:42 PM EDT
The Canadian coder who came up with the four lines of JavaScript that subverted The New York Times paywall has been sent a cease-and-desist letter from NYT's legal department asking him to stop using the name NYTClean. Link | Add comment
Tulsa Paper To Put Up Paywall On April 4
PaidContent, Mar 31, 2011, 3:49 PM EDT
Oklahoma newspaper the Tulsa World will erect a paywall on Monday, April 4. Readers will be able to read 10 articles a month free online before being prompted to pay between $14.99 and $16.99 for a digital subscription if they are not already print subscribers. The World has tried a paywall in the past, charging readers $60 annually for an online-only subscription, before taking it down in 2005. Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Is Jumping The NYT Paywall Stealing?
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 31, 2011, 8:51 AM EDT
Megan Garber: "The paper's public establishment of a certain 'kind of people' -- a class who not only read the Times, but pay for it -- is interesting for several reasons, one of them being its suggestion that there is also a 'kind of people' (potentially adolescent, probably unemployed, and possibly morally bankrupt) who wouldn't pay but would still consume Times content beyond the newspaper's stated bounds." Link | Add comment
Survey: Canadians Hate Paywalls
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 31, 2011, 8:39 AM EDT
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Keller's Argument For Paywall Unnecessary
Capital New York, Mar 30, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
Tom McGeveran: "Bill Keller's first two columns have irritated me, as a Times reader, by breaking two rules: They have sought to explain to me a paper I believed I knew pretty well already, and the explanations don't match my perception; and they sound discordant notes of apology and belligerence that make me feel embattled on behalf of this newly strange institution against a horde I never much cared to bother with before, and somewhat resent being bothered with now." Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Ulanoff: NYT Paywall A Good Idea
PCMag.com , Mar 30, 2011, 2:22 PM EDT
PCMag's Lance Ulanoff: "Without another consistent and significant source of revenue, no company, not even [a company] as big as The New York Times, can afford to give away its best stuff for free indefinitely. That's not business, it's charity." Link | Add comment
Bascobert: BizWeek Doesn’t Need Paywall
PaidContent, Mar 30, 2011, 1:32 PM EDT
'Pop Science' Sells 10,000 iPad Subscriptions
Advertising Age, Mar 30, 2011, 8:46 AM EDT
Bonnier's Popular Science magazine sold the 10,000th subscription to its iPad edition this week, nearly six weeks after accepting Apple's subscription terms. That's a speck compared to the title's nearly 1.2 million print subscriptions, but a significant early foothold for digital magazine subscriptions on the iPad. Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
$40M Could Have Been Used Elsewhere
Bnet, Mar 30, 2011, 7:37 AM EDT
The New York Times reportedly spent some $40 million developing its new paywall. Journalist Erik Sherman posits that The Times may have been better served investing that money in startups: "That could have been the tidy start of a venture capital fund whose purpose was to keep pay for the NYT news operations. ... If run correctly, that $40 million returns $100 million. Put $40 million back to work again and $60 million is now left for the news business." Link | Add comment
Kindle Users Get Free NYT Web Access
GeekWire , Mar 29, 2011, 7:54 AM EDT
Amazon.com said that Kindle customers who have purchased a subscription of The New York Times on the Kindle will be able to access the newspaper's Web site at no extra charge. Link | Add comment
NYT Offers Online Subscriptions For $1
Mashable, Mar 28, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
The New York Times is offering a heavily discounted digital subscription rate of $0.99 for the first four weeks. Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Paywall’s Biggest Foe Is Perception
PaidContent, Mar 28, 2011, 8:22 AM EDT
Staci Kramer: "The clearest aspect [of The New York Times' new pay plan] so far is how hard it is to cut through preconceptions, particularly when flexibility and complexity are involved. Link | Add comment
New York Times Paywall Goes Up Today
NetNewsCheck, Mar 28, 2011, 7:44 AM EDT
The long-awaited and much debated pricing plan for The New York Times finally goes into effect at 2 p.m. today. When it goes live, readers who do not subscribe to digital or print editions of the paper will hit the paywall after reading 20 stories in a month. A limited amount of stories can be accessed via links from search engines and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The Times will offer three tiers of digital access: NYTimes.com and the smartphone app ($15/month); Web site plus tablet app ($20/month); full digital access ($35/month). The home page, section fronts, blog fronts and classifieds will remain free. | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Paywall Arrives And It's No Big Deal
ClickZ, Mar 25, 2011, 3:30 PM EDT
Isobar vice president of social media Gary Stein: "The good news, however, is that this paywall is pretty forgiving. It's the sort of paywall that a publisher who is deeply aware of the way that online networks have changed the ways in which people keep up with what's going on and find interesting news to read." Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Silver: There Are Few Good NYT Substitutes
The New York Times, Mar 25, 2011, 8:20 AM EDT
Nate Silver, author of the FiveThirtyEight blog now found on The New York Times, weighed in on the paper's paywall: "I’m less sympathetic to the notion ... that there are a lot of good substitutes for The New York Times. Certainly there are some good substitutes: depending on the type of coverage you’re looking for, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal or CNN or ESPN.com. Of course, some of these substitutes already charge for digital access, are also having trouble balancing their budgets, or both." Link | Add comment
UK Times To Model Paywall Upgrade On NYT
PaidContent, Mar 25, 2011, 6:57 AM EDT
Newsonomics
Sunday Paper/Tablet Plans Could Be Future
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 24, 2011, 3:50 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on dropping daily editions for a Sunday print and daily tablet model: "The math is clear, and aspirational. Keep the Sunday reader, the Sunday reader income, and the Sunday ad revenue. Keep the daily attention of readers through digital access." Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Pay Plan Promotes Mobile Web
Poynter, Mar 24, 2011, 2:55 PM EDT
Poynter's Damon Kiesow thinks that The New York Times' new pay plan is trying to promote the mobile Web over native apps on tablet computers: "Rather than favoring print, perhaps the Times is moving to de-emphasize native mobile apps and the stranglehold Apple has over that ecosystem." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Papers Need Online But Not Print
The Eastern Echo, Mar 24, 2011, 2:55 PM EDT
Neil Weinberg on why newspaper paywalls won't work and why papers should phase out print: "If you want to read about a recent news event, you’re likely to check out a few sites. ... A pay wall takes us back to 1900 when you needed to buy 11 different papers to see 11 different perspectives. Today, you just need an internet connection and some spare time." Link | Add comment
Sulzberger: Apps Prove Readers Will Pay
The Paley Center, Mar 23, 2011, 3:59 PM EDT
New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. -- appearing with NYT president and CEO Janet Robinson at the Paley Center's Media Council roundtable breakfast -- said that the rise of tablets and apps has opened the door for newspapers to charge for content. Sulzberger also said that the only people who would game the Times[Action starts at 6:40]
Link | Add comment
Vermont Paper Gets Boost From Paywall
WCAX, Mar 23, 2011, 9:01 AM EDT
Vermont's Rutland Herald has seen page view drop from 3.9 million per month to 2.4 million since putting up its paywall in October, but the paper says it has received enough support to continue with the model.   Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Paywall Could End Up A Success
Reuters, Mar 23, 2011, 8:26 AM EDT
Felix Salmon: "I’m beginning to come around to the idea that the paywall can make good financial sense -- if everything goes according to plan. ... The NYT will surely proclaim the paywall to be a success no matter what happens. But if total pageviews don’t fall and digital advertising revenue increases, then it’s going to be pretty hard to make the case that the paywall was a bad idea." Link | Add comment
NYT Asks Twitter To Block Paywall Jumper
Forbes, Mar 23, 2011, 8:19 AM EDT
The New York Times has asked Twitter to disable the FreeNYTimes feed that used the newspaper's own application programming interface to help it automatically link to every story in the paper. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Buch: Charging For News Is A Bad Model
Bob Buch, Mar 23, 2011, 7:40 AM EDT
AOL vice president of business development Bob Buch: " The business model of news distribution is changing dramatically, and we all agree that journalists need to get compensated if we want them to continue the important work they do.  But I would argue that charging consumers to read news articles is not only bad for consumers, it’s also bad for journalists." Link | Add comment
WSJ Launches Single-Issue iPad Downloads
PaidContent, Mar 22, 2011, 3:36 PM EDT
Looking to get more subscribers for its iPad app, The Wall Street Journal will start selling single-issue digital versions of its morning paper for $1.99 in the iTunes App store tomorrow. Link | Add comment
Four Lines Of Code Tears Down The NYT Wall
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 22, 2011, 3:26 PM EDT
Canadian coder David Hayes has released NYTClean, a bookmarklet that, with four lines of code, tears down The New York Times' new paywall. Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
9 Questions As NYT Paywall Preps For Global
Newsonomics, Mar 22, 2011, 3:02 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor says The Times' pay plan announcement "raised as many or more questions than it answered," including several pricing questions. Link | Add comment
NYT To Limit Refers From All Search Engines
TechCrunch, Mar 22, 2011, 8:42 AM EDT
The New York Times communications manager Kristin Mason: "After reviewing our options, we decided to extend the policy of five free clicks per day to all major search engines by the global launch on March 28." Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Paywalls Help Support Journalistic Efforts
The New York Times, Mar 21, 2011, 3:53 PM EDT
New York Time media writer David Carr defends The Times and its effort to support quality journalism with its new pay plan: "It seems an odd time to argue against a business initiative that aims at keeping boots on the ground during a time of global upheaval." Link | Add comment
NYT Online Pay Model Was Years In Making
The New York Times, Mar 21, 2011, 8:41 AM EDT
The New York Times has spent much of the past two years planning its new pay model to keep it from suffering the same fate of its failed TimesSelect experiment. Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Finding A Fair Price For The NY Times
Monday Note, Mar 21, 2011, 8:24 AM EDT
Media consultant Frédéric Filloux: "Intellectually stimulating as the exercise might be, when analyzing readers’ migration to digital, you can’t reach useable conclusions through a mere extrapolation of the eroding print model. Nor can you reliably model price elasticity in an electronic medium where 'free' is the rule, 'freemium' the minority, and paid-for the exception." Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Kramer: I'll Pay For NYT, Not The Daily
C-Scape, Mar 21, 2011, 8:07 AM EDT
Larry Kramer: "In the case of [The New York Times], the content has already proven it's value to me over the many years I have consumed it, in print and on line. ... Contrast that with The Daily, which still needed to prove the value of its content to me." Link | Add comment
Lincoln Offers Free NYT Access For All 2011
Advertising Age, Mar 18, 2011, 3:26 PM EDT
The New York Times has built in one more loophole to its online pay plan that it did not mention yesterday: Interstitial ads from automaker Lincoln on The Times' Web site are offering some readers "Free, Unlimited Access to NYTimes.com" for the rest of the year. Link | Add comment
Commentary
NYT Model Won't Work In Other Markets
Newsosaur, Mar 18, 2011, 3:26 PM EDT
Alan Mutter warns that while The New York Times' new pay plan may turn out to work well for the newspaper, it might not be the answer for other publications: "Most newspapers in the rest of country lack the substantial body of compelling, exclusive content and the unparalleled concentration of wealthy readers that are enjoyed by The Times." Link | Add comment
Media Buyers: Paywall May Boost NYT Ads
PaidContent, Mar 18, 2011, 3:26 PM EDT
Media buyers don't expect The New York Times' online ad revenue, which was up double digits last year, to take a hit from the company's new digital subscription plans. Some even see a scenario where The Times will be able to charge higher rates -- if the newspaper hits the expected number of "heavy users" which may offer proof of "more engaged" readers. Link | Add comment
German Mags Fight Apple Subscription Policy
PaidContent, Mar 18, 2011, 8:59 AM EDT
Commentary
Choosing A Print Subscription Over Digital
Vator.tv, Mar 18, 2011, 8:40 AM EDT
Faith Merino: "When I read the newspaper, I want to relax with it. I like waking up on a Sunday morning, making a big breakfast, and sitting down at the kitchen table with my coffee and the Sunday edition of my local newspaper. By the end of the week, my eyeballs are so drained from staring at a computer screen for 14 hours a day, five days a week, that I don't want to be anywhere near a computer on my weekends. The last thing I want is to prop up a tablet over my plate and stare at another LCD screen while I'm getting my grub on." Link | Add comment
Q&A with NYT's Janet Robinson
NYT CEO: Any Traffic Dip Will Be Short Term
Advertising Age, Mar 18, 2011, 8:11 AM EDT
The New York Times Co. president and CEO Janet Robinson: "This is a long-term strategy. In the long term, we have the opportunity to not only maintain our audience but to grow it. In the short-term perspective, going to something new in this transition time, there may be a slight dip in traffic." Link | Add comment
Q&A with NYT's Martin Nisenholtz
NY Times Confident Users Will Pay For News
All Things Digital, Mar 18, 2011, 8:02 AM EDT
The New York Times Co. senior vice president of digital operations Martin Nisenholtz: "We are very, very confident, based on three rounds of research with three separate groups of loyalists, three seperate vendors, over three seperate time periods, that the conversion rates among that group are going to be sufficiently high to layer in the second revenue stream." Link | Add comment
New York Times Will Be Sold Through iTunes
All Things Digital, Mar 18, 2011, 7:35 AM EDT
Apple gets its first big publisher to announce it is signing on with the company's new subscription plan: The New York Times says it will sell access to the paper's apps through iTunes, on Apple's new terms. Link | Add comment
NYT Uses Promoted Twitter Trend For Paywall News
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 17, 2011, 3:10 PM EDT
Newsonomics of The NYT Pay Fence
NYT Faces Tests Charging For 'General News'
Nieman Journalism Lab, Mar 17, 2011, 3:07 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "Though the [Financial Times] and The Wall Street Journal have long operated successful pay models, [The New York Times'] leap is a big one: The Times isn’t mainly a business newspaper. If it can succeed charging readers for 'general news,' that’s a milestone for newspapers around the world." Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Outing: NYT Blew It With New Pay Model
SteveOuting.com, Mar 17, 2011, 2:15 PM EDT
Journalist Steve Outing: The New York Times' new pay plan is "a backward-looking strategy that hobbles the potential success of the digital side. I contend that no news organization -- even The New York Times -- can succeed long term when it makes decisions based on looking over its shoulder at the dying legacy product." Link | Add comment
New York Times Announces Paywall Details
NetNewsCheck, Mar 17, 2011, 1:57 PM EDT
The New York Times today announced the details and pricing of its new metered pay plan. The new pricing plan goes into effect immediately in Canada and begins globally on March 28. The newspaper announced three tiers of digital access: NYTimes.com and the smartphone app ($15/month); Web site plus tablet app ($20/month); full digital access ($35/month). Users who don't want to subscribe can read up to 20 stories each month. The home page, section fronts, blog fronts and classifieds will also remain free. | Add comment
Our Take

With free access to only 20 articles per month, The New York Times’ new paywall plan seems to be a bit restrictive. We, along with most other industry watchers, expected the paywall to be much more lenient at first and then tighten up over time. We also expected the price to start lower and gradually rise, as a way to break in a generation of readers that has been accustomed to accessing the news for free. The Times has always been one of our favorite newspapers, but when its new pricing plan goes into effect, it may become much less of a go-to source. It’s almost enough to make me miss my days of commuting into New York and picking up a leftover paper on the train.

Commentary: The New York Times 'Pay fence'
NYT's Pay Launch Comes At A Good Time
Newsonomics, Mar 16, 2011, 2:54 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor believes the timing is perfect for The New York Times to put up its somewhat porous pay fence: "As news of the roll-up of 'community dailies' by hedge fund owners seeps into the culture, The New York Times can better play its legacy 'trust us' card, with some effect." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Online News Growth Faces Challenges
24/7 Wall St., Mar 16, 2011, 8:14 AM EDT
Jonathan Berr: "Paywalls may drive more readers to aggregation sites such as Huffington Post which offer them summaries of articles or to blogs." Link | Add comment
Norway Media Co. Schibsted To Erect Paywalls
Bloomberg, Mar 16, 2011, 8:04 AM EDT
Commentary
Augusta Chronicle Gets The Paywall Right
Reuters, Mar 16, 2011, 7:59 AM EDT
Reuter's Felix Salmon: "In other words, the idea here is that people who read the [Augusta Chronicle’s] Web site are now being told quite explicitly that they’re reading valuable journalism. That, in turn, means that they will value and respect it more than they would some free sheet." Link | Add comment
Paper Puts Up Paywall And Sees Traffic Rise
Newsosaur, Mar 14, 2011, 9:03 AM EDT
The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle erected its paywall three months ago and has seen a 5% rise in page views since then. Alan Mutter: "For all the improvements [the newspaper] may have made in their digital operation, the principal reason his traffic was unaffected by the pay system seems to be the generous amount of content a user can access for free before even learning that she is supposed to pay for it." Link | Add comment
ESPN Could Benefit From Dallas Paywall
Dallas Business Journal, Mar 14, 2011, 8:23 AM EDT
ESPNDallas.com believes The Dallas Morning News paywall will give the sport network's local operation an opening to score additional market share. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Ad Walls Could Help Paywall Efforts
Folio, Mar 10, 2011, 3:41 PM EST
Scout Analytics senior VP of strategy Matthew Shanahan: "Unlike interstitials that are frequently dismissed, the adwall requires viewing and acknowledgement or no access is provided. ... Ad units like adwalls are unlikely to erode any existing paywall revenue because the fans that would pay for access would also likely pay to avoid the adwall for convenience sake. It actually has the chance to generate paywall revenue." Link | Add comment
UK's Times Paywall Claims 21% Lift In Brand Recall
MediaWeek, Mar 10, 2011, 7:30 AM EST
Commentary
Limited Local Paid-Content Models Can Work
Adotas.com, Mar 9, 2011, 8:15 AM EST
Using the example of fans paying for local sports coverage, Adotas.com's Gavin Dunaway notes that local readers would be likely to pay for content from a local newspaper if it has credential. But not enough people care to use the model on all local content: "Despite credential, most local content does not have the demand to warrant a subscription, a truth that has existed for a long time." Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Paywalls May Not Stem Tide Of Free Content
GigaOM, Mar 9, 2011, 7:26 AM EST
Matthew Ingram: "The reality is that the biggest problem for traditional newspaper companies -- a combination of high costs and falling ad revenue -- isn't something a paywall is going to help solve. At best, it's a stop-gap measure that might slow their decline somewhat, and an ultimately futile attempt to reimpose scarcity on their content in an age when the supply of free content is virtually unlimited." Link | Add comment
Gannett Considers Charging For Online News
Bloomberg, Mar 8, 2011, 8:37 AM EST
Gannett Co., the owner of 82 newspapers including USA Today, is considering charging for its online content, CEO Craig Dubow told Bloomberg. The company is trying a paid-content model at three newspaper Web sites, and is likely to experiment more before making a decision about the broad use of paywalls, Dubow said. Link | Add comment
News Corp.: Paywalls Benefit Advertisers
Guardian, Mar 8, 2011, 7:10 AM EST
News Corp.'s News International is claiming that advertisers have benefited from "significant lifts in user engagement and brand recall" due to charging for access to The Times of London's Web site. The claim is based on a three-month study by the research company Promise that compared reactions to three types of online environments: the paid-for Times, an unidentified free-to-access quality news site and an online portal. Link | Add comment
Dallas Morning News Paywall Goes Live
Mike Orren, Mar 8, 2011, 6:53 AM EST
Belo-owned The Dallas Morning News today erected its paywall which requires a subscription for readers to access most of its content. "The reason is straightforward: Online advertising rates are insufficient at the scale of traffic generated by metro newspaper Web sites to support the businesses they operate. We need to find additional and meaningful sources of revenue to sustain our profitability as we journey further into the digital marketplace,"  publisher Jim Moroney said in an e-mail to staff. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Digital Subscription Plans
Apple Takes Big Bite Out Of Small Mags
PBS MediaShift, Mar 7, 2011, 3:40 PM EST
California State University, Fresno assistant professor Susan Currie Sivek: "Independent magazines finely hone their content and advertising to attract a specific readership. That makes Apple's iPad subscription plan a particularly hard sell for small magazines. Apple requires readers to opt into sharing their personal data with publishers, and many readers will likely choose not to share. Indies need that information for marketing, promotions and customizing content." Link | Add comment
Five Digital Media Trends to Watch
Mashable, Mar 4, 2011, 8:22 AM EST
From the new aggregation and curation models to multiplatform subscriptions, Mashable takes a look at the five digital media trends that are shaping the industry's future. Link | Add comment
UK's Express & Star Raises Paywall
PaidContent, Mar 3, 2011, 2:43 PM EST
The United Kingdom’s best-selling regional daily newspaper, the Express & Star, will start requiring a bundled print-and-Web subscription for the majority of its Web site articles. Link | Add comment
Sulzberger: Paywall Won't Hurt NYT Traffic
Guardian, Mar 3, 2011, 7:50 AM EST
New York Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger, speaking at the Financial Times Digital Media conference in London, maintained that the paper will unveil its metered model shortly and predicted that it will not see a "massive fall in drop in traffic" when it introduces charging for its content. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Digital Subscription Plans
Apple Takes 30% Because It Can
Daring Fireball, Mar 2, 2011, 2:36 PM EST
Daring Fireball's John Gruber: "Apple doesn’t give a damn about companies with business models that can’t afford a 70/30 split. Apple’s running a competitive business; competition is cold and hard." Link | Add comment
Variety Lowers Paywall A Bit For News Blog
The Wrap, Feb 28, 2011, 7:23 AM EST
Variety will take a step out from behind its paywall March 1 by launching a breaking news blog to be mainly written by film editor Josh Dickey. The site has been behind a paywall since 2009. Link | Add comment
Analyst: Monetize The User, Not The Content
The Media Briefing, Feb 25, 2011, 3:06 PM EST
Forrester analyst Nick Thomas spoke at The Media Briefing's inaugural conference "Paywall Strategies 2011": "Consumers aren’t anarchists that won’t pay for anything… They will pay for access, convenience and content. consumers will pay for access to the right product delivered at the right time and to the right platform." Link | Add comment
Commentary
No Surprise Papers Turning To Pay To Play
American Journalism Review, Feb 24, 2011, 6:42 AM EST
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigative reporter Cary Spivak on newspapers charging for access: "With all the pressure that the Internet era and the economic downturn have placed on the beleaguered newspaper industry, it's hardly surprising that many news outlets are frantically searching for new revenue streams." Link | Add comment
Jobs: Only Publishers Bound By Sub Rules
The Next Web, Feb 23, 2011, 8:15 AM EST
Apple chief Steve Jobs assuaged the fears of developers of apps that offer services as software, saying that the company's new digital subscription policy applied only to publishers. "We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not [software-as-a-service] apps," he told one developer in an e-mail. Link | Add comment
UK's Telegraph To Launch Metered Paywall
Guardian, Feb 23, 2011, 8:03 AM EST
London's Daily Telegraph is planning a generous metered paywall that will be introduced in September. The plan has been described as a "very light touch" with a "very generous allowance" before users would reach the metered limit and be forced to register and pay. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Google's One Pass
German Pub's Online Plan Might Work
The Next Web, Feb 23, 2011, 7:45 AM EST
Focus Online, Germany's third most-read news site, now charges a modest 10 cents an article. TNW's Martin Bryant believes the plan has merit: "Focus doesn't plan to base its entire business model around One Pass -- advertising will continue to play a big part for the time being, but as a test of what could work in the future I'd say that charging for things readers are most likely to want to pay for is a promising start, and one that newspapers considering paywalls should perhaps consider." Link | Add comment
Google's Digital Subscription Plan
For German Pub, One Pass Is A 'Small Test'
PaidContent, Feb 22, 2011, 8:33 AM EST
In Munich, one of Google’s launch partners has been quietly transforming its online news model. Focus Online, Germany’s third most-read news site behind Bild and Spiegel Online, now charges a modest 10 cents per article, with “five or six” features a day going through Google’s checkout. Link | Add comment
Apple Digital Subscription Plan
Readability Speaks Out Against Apple Plan
PaidContent, Feb 22, 2011, 8:29 AM EST
Readability -- which creates apps and Web services that let users have pared-down, text-based versions of online articles to make reading them easier -- has written an open letter to Apple today, attacking the company for a "new policy [that] smacks of greed." Link | Add comment
Paywalls Test Relevance Of UK Papers
NPR, Feb 22, 2011, 7:42 AM EST
U.K. newspapers The Times and The Sunday Times have put up paywalls, testing whether they can remain relevant while telling readers they can no longer enjoy a free ride. But the road has been bumpy: Before the paywall, the two papers drew 20 million distinct online readers per month, that's dropped to about 105,000 people monthly, meaning the papers lost about 95% of their online audience. Link | Add comment
Apple Sub Plan Fallout, Frustration Continue
ReadWriteWeb, Feb 21, 2011, 3:08 PM EST
Apple's 30% fee is posing problems for a number of companies and developers -- those who have built their businesses around the existing rules, for example, and those who don't have the margins to be able to hand over such a cut to Apple. Companies that have raised questions about the new policy run the gamut: music streaming services, e-book sellers, and software-as-a-service developers; big companies and startups alike. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Digital Subscription Plans
Apple's Subscription Plan Might Mean War
MediaWeek, Feb 21, 2011, 8:02 AM EST
Lucia Moses: "While it seems the industry is getting what it’s long wanted -- the ability to sell subscriptions, not just single copies -- Apple has rigged the game." Link | Add comment
Commentary: Digital Subscription Plans
Apple, Google Cut Of Subscriptions Too High
PaidContent, Feb 18, 2011, 2:44 PM EST
Forrester Research's James McQuivey: "The most important outcome of this week's emerging tussle between Apple and Google is that we are about to have an intense and financially difficult conversation about what a fair price is for delivering customers to developers, publishers, and producers. Link | Add comment
Antitrust Enforcers Eye Apple Digital Sub Plan
The Wall Street Journal, Feb 18, 2011, 7:38 AM EST
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have begun looking at the terms Apple set this week for media companies who want to sell their content on its popular iPad and other devices, according to people familiar with the matter. Link | Add comment
Newsonomics of Apple/Google/Press+
Sub Plans Spark Paid Content Free-For-All
Nieman Journalism Lab, Feb 17, 2011, 3:40 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "If Apple’s business strategy here is divide and conquer by muddle, misunderstanding and mix-up, it couldn’t have done a better job." Link | Add comment
Commentary
Trio Of Mags Say Yes To iPad Sub Terms
Advertising Age, Feb 17, 2011, 8:52 AM EST
Many magazines are staying away from Apple's new iPad subscription system, which threatens to keep publishers in the dark about their own subscribers, but a small, diverse group of magazines has emerged to accept Apple's terms, including Hachette Filipacchi's Elle, Bonnier's Popular Science and independent Nylon. Link | Add comment
Google's Digital Subscription Plan
One Pass Goes Up Against Journalism Online
PaidContent, Feb 17, 2011, 8:34 AM EST
One company set to face new competition now that Google is rolling out its paid content system is Journalism Online and its Press Plus pay platform, which to date has helped roughly 24 publications, predominately smaller-circulation newspapers, charge readers to access online content. Link | Add comment
Apple Digital Subscription Plan
Publishers Fear Apple's Pricing Power
TechCrunch, Feb 17, 2011, 8:34 AM EST
Publishers and other media companies with substantial subscription businesses don’t like the prospect of handing over 30% of their revenue to Apple. But more than that, they fear Apple’s control over pricing. Erick Schonfeld: "The refrain I’ve heard from a couple of publishing industry insiders is: 'How do we know next year Apple won’t be taking 50%?'" Link | Add comment
Rust, Media Gen Plan Paywalls On One Pass
PaidContent, Feb 16, 2011, 3:08 PM EST
With today's announcement of Google's new One Pass subscription service, two newspaper publishers said they are planning to use the service to erect paywalls at some of their newspaper sites this year. Media General plans to use One Pass to charge users who access Richmond Times Dispatch's site, while midwest newspaper chain Rust Communications will soon charge some users at three of its newspaper sites. Link | Add comment
Google Counters Apple With One Pass
Associated Press, Feb 16, 2011, 2:55 PM EST
The Web giant's CEO Eric Schmidt speaking at Berlin's Humboldt University today said the company has launched its new online payment system, Google One Pass, that lets publishers set their own prices and terms for digital content. Schmidt said Google would take a 10% cut of every sale from One Pass, compared to Apple's 30%. Link | Add comment
ITunes Subscriptions Won't Stop Free News
Newsosaur, Feb 16, 2011, 3:08 PM EST
Alan Mutter: "[Apple's new subscription service] is not going to throttle the flow of free news on the web any better than iTunes has stopped the torrential consumption of pirated music." Link | Add comment
UK Paper 'The Sun' Delays Paywall
MediaWeek, Feb 16, 2011, 3:08 PM EST
News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper The Sun, which was to follow its corporate cousins the News of the World, The Times of London and The Sunday Times behind a paywall last month, delayed its pay scheme as executives assess the effectiveness of the other three sites efforts. According to a report, The Sun is not likely to erect a paywall before the end of the year. Link | Add comment
New Apple Sub Rules Raise Antitrust Issues
The Wall Street Journal, Feb 16, 2011, 8:38 AM EST
Apple's new subscription service could draw antitrust scrutiny, according to law professors. Publishers could claim that Apple dominates the market for consumer tablet computers and that it has allegedly used that commanding position to restrict competition. Link | Add comment
What Apple's New Sub Plan Means For Pubs
Mashable, Feb 15, 2011, 3:19 PM EST
Christina Warren: "Fundamentally, the ability to subscribe to content using iTunes is good for consumers because it creates a more cohesive experience. It also means that publishers will be more likely to investigate offering various subscription options for multiple device types. For publishers, losing out on 30% of subscriber revenue may be a tough pill to swallow." Link | Add comment
Apple Rolls Out New Subscription Plan
NetNewsCheck, Feb 15, 2011, 2:54 PM EST
Apple today rolled out its new subscription billing service to all publishers who make their content available through the tech giant’s App Store. Under the new plan, Apple will take a 30% share of in-app subscription purchases. Full Story | Add comment
Commentary
The State Of Play For Paid Content, 2011
Newsosaur, Feb 14, 2011, 8:14 AM EST
Alan Mutter: "Speed bumps are exactly like the complicated new approaches that publishers have concocted to try to get paid for the stories they port from their papers to the digital media. These complex plans are bound to confound consumers as never before, raising the question of whether the consternation and ill will they engender will be worth the modest revenue they bring in." Link | Add comment
Readability Becomes Instapaper Pub Payment Layer
TechCrunch, Feb 8, 2011, 7:04 AM EST
Survey: NY Times Paywall Will Work
Business Insider, Feb 4, 2011, 8:36 AM EST
The results of a Business Insider survey indicate that The New York Times paywall will see some initial success. The survey found that 10% of those who do not subscribe to the print edition said they will pay for access. Another 10% said they might pay for access. Link | Add comment
NYT's Bill Keller Defends Metered Paywall
PBS MediaShift, Feb 2, 2011, 8:28 AM EST
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, along with Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet spoke with Marvin Kalb during the latest installment of George Washington University's monthly media discussion, The Kalb Report. The main topics were the Times collaboration with WikiLeaks and its plans to roll out a metered paywall: "People who use The New York Times Web site as their newspaper should pay a little something for it," Keller said. Link | Add comment
FT Editor: Paywalls Big Leap For News Sites
Guardian, Feb 1, 2011, 7:41 AM EST
Financial Times editor Lionel Barber in his Hugh Cudlipp lecture: "The hope in this is that people will wish to continue to read the content that these organizations provide -- and will subscribe. The risk is that they will simply go elsewhere ... For those publications adopting paywalls, the strategy represents a big leap into uncharted territory. Those which remain free or substantially free, have another kind of hope: that the very large audiences they are able to garner through freely available content will boost sales -- or at least slow the decline of the print edition." Link | Add comment
Industry: NY Times Paywall Plan Flawed
MediaWeek, Jan 31, 2011, 3:02 PM EST
The New York Times is ignoring the deep flaws in its online business model, say industry observers, missing its chance to transform online publishing by instead opting to earn a few quick bucks. Link | Add comment
Newsonomics of the do-over
Newspapers Call Do-Over On Paid Content
Nieman Journalism Lab, Jan 27, 2011, 3:47 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor on newspapers turning to paywalls after years of giving away content for free: "In 2011, we’ve got a convergence of factors beginning to create a new sense of where traditional news publishing may go. They may, collectively, provide an inflection point, a point at which the news industry sees itself differently and consumers are suddenly confronted by numerous paying choices. Together, these factors offer a newsonomics of do-over, the ability to unwind what many call the original sin of giving away news content for free, and creating a new business model for how news is distributed and paid for." Link | Add comment
WPP's Sorrell Calls For Content Pay Model
MediaPost, Jan 26, 2011, 4:04 PM EST
Martin Sorrell, CEO of ad agency WPP Group, speaking at NATPE Monday said he believes it is imperative that a pay model for content should dominate, since media companies need more than ad dollars to afford continued production of top-tier content. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Dropping The Paywall For Pay
Mike Orren, Jan 26, 2011, 7:32 AM EST
Media consultant Mike Orren: "What if you let a person or company featured in a story pay to have it placed outside the paywall? In some cases, a business might be willing to pay several hundred dollars to see their story hit a wider audience. Might a proud parent whose child is featured pay $100 so they can email the link to all their friends and relatives?" Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
NY Times Should Follow NPR's Pay Model
Fast Company, Jan 25, 2011, 3:39 PM EST
Anya Kamenetz: "With its large, affluent, reasonably liberal and guilt-ridden audience, the Times would have more monetary success and more brand success with an NPR-like pay-what-you-will membership model with free events, tote bags, and other goodies thrown in." Link | Add comment
NY Times Paywall Expected Next Month
The Wall Street Journal, Jan 24, 2011, 6:43 AM EST
The New York Times is expected to roll out its long talked about metered paywall next month. The Times will sell an Internet-only subscription for unlimited access to its site, as well as a broader digital package that bundles the Times online with its application on the iPad. The paper's print subscribers will get full online privileges at no additional cost. Link | Add comment
Commentary: NYT Paywall
New York Times Paywall Is 'Doomed'
Minyanville.com, Jan 21, 2011, 2:55 PM EST
Mike Schuster: "Why would anyone pay for online news when there are countless other outlets providing coverage -- ranging from adequate to transcendent -- for absolutely free? ... Not only is this a phenomenally bad idea that has proven to be many newspapers' ruin, the [New York] Times has witnessed the experiment fail firsthand. Its TimesSelect section put several columns behind a paywall in 2005 and came crashing down in 2007. And that was only for $7.95/month." Link | Add comment
NYT To Charge Under $20 For Web Access
Bloomberg, Jan 20, 2011, 3:30 PM EST
New York Times Co. will charge readers less than $20 per month for full Web access to its namesake newspaper when the company introduces its paid service, a person familiar with the matter said. Link | Add comment
Waco Paper Learns From Its Paywall Efforts
Knight Digital Media Center, Jan 18, 2011, 7:46 AM EST
Four months ago, the Waco Tribune-Herald put up a paywall. The newspaper's editor Carlos Sanchez tells KDMC's Michele McLellan that the paper has weathered technical challenges and a drop in Web traffic. But the paper has also seen a rise in print subscriptions and not all feedback has been bad: "Surprisingly, we have had just as much positive response as negative." Link | Add comment
Journalism Online Study:
Paywalls Have Little Effect On Papers' Traffic
The New York Times, Jan 18, 2011, 7:20 AM EST
Steven Brill’s Journalism Online experiment, which developed a system that allows newspapers to charge their most regular online visitors, has analyzed its preliminary data and found on average that ad revenue and overall traffic did not decline significantly for some two dozen small- and medium-size papers after paywalls were put up. Link | Add comment
PMN: Philly.com Not Going Behind Paywall
Phawker.com, Jan 7, 2011, 6:49 AM EST
Philadelphia Media Network CEO Greg Osberg responded to reports that Philly.com would be putting up a paywall, saying that, while the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer's new tablet editions would be subscription based, their Web site will stay free. Link | Add comment
Publisher: Dallas Paper's Paywall Is A 'Risk'
Nieman Journalism Lab, Jan 6, 2011, 3:54 PM EST
The Dallas Morning News publisher Jim Moroney said of the paper's plans to begin charging for digital content, "“This is a big risk -- I’m not confident we’re going to succeed. But we’ve got to try something. We’ve got to try different things.” Link | Add comment
Philly.com Moving Closer To A Paywall Plan
Philebrity.com, Jan 6, 2011, 7:30 AM EST
Philly.com will soon be pushing two pay products: the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News in an “e-reader” format, which mimics the layouts of those papers, according to reports. Content from the papers that appears on Philly.com will remain free. Also on tap for the site: a redesign and a pending content partnership between Philly.com and City Paper. Link | Add comment
Dallas Morning News To Erect Paywall
The Dallas Morning News, Jan 4, 2011, 2:28 PM EST
A.H. Belo Corp. on Feb. 15 will begin charging for online and mobile access to "proprietary news and information" on Dallas.com, the site of its flagship newspaper The Dallas Morning News. "Headlines, breaking news, most blogs, obituaries, classifieds and nonproprietary content such as syndicated wire stories will remain free," according to the newspaper. Link | Add comment
Commentary
How Online News Evolved In 2010
The Next Web, Dec 29, 2010, 2:52 PM EST
Paywalls, hyperlocal sites, WikiLeaks, Twitter and iPads changed the way news was researched, reported and consumed online during the past year. Link | Add comment
Newsonomics Of All Access and Apple
Will Apple Force Publishers To Set Paywalls?
Nieman Journalism Lab, Dec 17, 2010, 2:36 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "Publishers must restrict browser access is some form. In other words, you can’t simply charge for digital content on the tablet and the smartphone and let it run freely wild through a browser. The pay models may not have to be the same, tablet to smartphone to browser (that’s unclear), but publishers can’t two use two opposite approaches and use the iTunes stores an initial access point to gain customers and keep all the resulting revenue." Link | Add comment
Dave Winer:
No Place For New Maginot Line In News
Nieman Journalism Lab, Dec 15, 2010, 3:41 PM EST
Web pioneer Dave Winer: "The Maginot Line would have been a perfect defense in World War I. It didn’t help much in the second war. Analogously, there was a perfect paywall in the pre-Internet news business, the physical product of a newspaper. There is no equivalent in the new distribution system." Link | Add comment
Time Inc. Opens Up On Digital Initiatives
Advertising Age, Dec 14, 2010, 8:22 AM EST
In a Q&A with Advertising Age, Time CEO Jack Griffin and new chief digital officer Randall Rothenberg talked about the company's digital direction, from paywalls and apps to Angry Birds. Link | Add comment
Commentary: The New York Times Paywall
Will NYT's New Metered-Access Model Work?
Nieman Journalism Lab, Dec 14, 2010, 7:23 AM EST
Various newspaper industry watchers and editors give their thoughts on why The New York Times new paywall -- set to be erected in January -- will succeed or fail. Link | Add comment
Commentary: Newspapers' 'Original Sin'
Newspapers Won't Find Safety In Paywalls
SteveOuting.com, Dec 13, 2010, 3:37 PM EST
Journalist Steve Outing: "My expectation is that we’ll find out soon enough that paywalls on general news by newspaper Web sites truly don’t work (except perhaps in some non-competitive small markets), but the result of some following Murdoch’s lead will be the death of more metro dailies." Link | Add comment
Experian/Guardian Study:
54,000 Per Month Go Behind Times Paywall
PressGazette, Dec 9, 2010, 8:29 AM EST
Experian Hitwise research commissioned by Guardian News and Media found that about 54,000 people per month are accessing content behind the paywall of the London Times and Sunday Times. Link | Add comment
California Paper Drops Its Paywall
Sonoma PressDemocrat, Dec 9, 2010, 8:03 AM EST
The Sonoma Index-Tribune decided to drop the $5 per month paywall that it erected earlier this year. The California paper cited the arrival of AOL's Patch, offering free news to several communities served by the paper. Link | Add comment
NYT Makes Efforts To Prevent Paywall Abuse
Yahoo News, Dec 8, 2010, 7:39 AM EST
At a UBS media conference Tuesday morning, New York Times Co. executives discussed its efforts to "make sure that the first-click-free policy isn't abused in any way." Link | Add comment
NYT Drops Hints About Metered Online Model
Poynter, Dec 7, 2010, 4:05 PM EST
In a presentation to the annual UBS Global Media Conference this morning, The New York Times dropped some new hints about how its metered access pay model, scheduled to debut in the first quarter of 2011, will work and the underlying business strategy behind it. Link | Add comment
Graham: WaPo Won't Be Paywall 'Pioneer'
MediaPost, Dec 7, 2010, 8:00 AM EST
The Washington Post will not rush into a paid content model. Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham at the 38th annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York said the company will watch how The New York Times performs as it institutes fees next year, and how the Times of London succeeds with its current effort: "We're not going to be pioneers on those experiments, but we'll be watching everyone ... we're quite willing to be followers on this front." Link | Add comment
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
'Metered Access' Is Not A Paywall
Steve Yelvington, Dec 6, 2010, 3:31 PM EST
Steve Yelvington: "An advertising-only business model has a dangerous characteristic that any farmer would recognize: If conditions shift against it, you're screwed. That's clearly happened as the recession that began in 2007 drove the ad business into the ground. Anyone who's been in the media business long enough eventually learns that some revenue streams are more affected by business cycles than others. Reader revenue is relatively less affected, and looking for ways to blend it into the mix is a healthy move." Link | Add comment
Georgia Newspaper Turns To Metered Access
The Augusta Chronicle, Dec 6, 2010, 3:15 PM EST
UK Local Papers Consider Paywalls
The Inquirer, Dec 2, 2010, 3:09 PM EST
NYT Looks To WeightWatchers For Web Tips
Reuters, Dec 1, 2010, 8:07 AM EST
The New York Times prepared for its upcoming move to a metered pay model by studying "everything from Consumer Reports to WeightWatchers" to create a strategy to convert free users to paying customers. Link | Add comment
No Paywall Decision Yet For UK's Telegraph
Reuters, Nov 30, 2010, 3:21 PM EST
Britain's Telegraph newspaper said it had made no decision on whether to charge for reading its news online, after a Financial Times report said it was planning to erect a paywall next year. Link | Add comment
HuffPo CEO: Paywalls Not Good For News
The Telegraph, Nov 24, 2010, 7:49 AM EST
Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau in an interview with The Telegraph says  he doesn't believe paywalls can be successful for general news sites: "I don't believe that asking people to pay for news is a viable business model."  
Link | Add comment
Online-Only Pub Still Testing Paid Model
Poynter Online, Nov 23, 2010, 2:26 PM EST
Honolulu Civil Beat celebrated its six-month anniversary earlier this month with three days of free access for all. That's one indicator of where the experiment with ad-free, quality content and discussion at $19.99-a-month stands: proud of its journalistic progress, still testing its business model. Link | Add comment
Commentary: The Future Of Paywalls
Microtransactions, Buy-Ins, And Content Wars
CrunchGear, Nov 22, 2010, 7:16 AM EST
Devin Coldewey: "The paywall will eventually succeed, and even thrive — but the advances and sacrifices necessary to make that happen aren’t likely to happen for at least a few years." Link | Add comment
FT, Guardian Editors Debate The Paywall
The Webby Debates, Nov 19, 2010, 3:20 PM EST
The Webby Debates took on the subject of paywalls with FT.com managing editor Robert Shrimsley and Guardian.co.uk editor Janine Gibson. Shrimsley pushed the point that high traffic isn't enough to make a site successful, while Gibson laid out why the pay model was not for The Guardian.  
Link | Add comment
Mo. Paper To Go Behind Paywall Next Month
Columbia Daily Tribune, Nov 16, 2010, 3:37 PM EST
The Columbia Daily Tribune on Dec. 1 will begin charging readers for unlimited access to its Web site. The paper will use a metered model, which will allow visitors to read up to 10 local stories per month for free. After hitting the quota, readers will have to purchase an online subscription or buy individual stories. Link | Add comment
Honolulu Civil Beat Tries To Grow Audience
Nieman Journalism Lab, Nov 15, 2010, 4:44 PM EST
The Honolulu Civil Beat made a splash earlier this year when it debuted with a pay-first philosophy that kept much of its content behind a paywall. Editor John Temple and his staff have developed a strategy of giving away free "samples" in order to entice readers. Link | Add comment
Commentary
Paywalls For Local Papers Are Not Evil
Seacoastonline.com, Nov 15, 2010, 8:26 AM EST
J. Dennis Robinson, SeacoastNH.com editor and Portsmouth Herald contributor, on the Herald's decision to erect a paywall: "Reporters like to eat, too. They want to raise babies and drive cars and live in houses. It isn't easy. Journalism jobs pay poorly. ... So half of the critics I know agree it's about time the local daily started charging for its online edition. Maybe it will get better, hire more reporters, do more investigative journalism -- OK, let's not get carried away. But maybe they will stay alive and keep reporting the news." Link | Add comment
Commentary
The Times' Paywall and News Economics
Shirky.com, Nov 9, 2010, 2:52 PM EST
New media consultant and professor Clay Shirky: "The 'paywall problem' isn’t particularly complex, either in economic or technological terms. General-interest papers struggle to make paywalls work because it’s hard to raise prices in a commodity market. That’s the problem. Everything else is a detail." Link | Add comment
Times U.K. Loses 4M To Paywall Experiment
TechCrunch, Nov 3, 2010, 6:49 AM EDT
Many newspapers are in the process of or planning to erect paywalls, but for The Times of London and the Sunday Times, the paid content road has been a rocky one so far.  According to comScore, The Times' readership dropped by 4 million unique visitors per month, a 62% decline, after it erected its paywall. Link | Add comment
New Hampshire News Sites Erect Paywall
Seacoastonline.com, Nov 1, 2010, 6:15 AM EDT
Seacoast Media Group Announced Sunday (Oct. 31) that beginning Nov. 16 it will charge readers for online access to Secoastonline.com, the Web home for New Hampshire newspapers The Portsmouth Herald, The Exeter News-Letter, The Hampton Union, and Maine papers the York County Coast Star and York Weekly. Readers will have free access to up to three articles per month; an online or online plus print subscription will be required to read more. Link | Add comment
New York Times' Janet Robinson
Finding New Digital Models Is Important
Financial Times, Oct 29, 2010, 2:05 PM EDT
New York Times chief Janet Robinson said finding successful new digital models is of critical importance and that the company is taking the time to get the technology right before launching its metered online model -- which will ask readers to pay for some content beyond a set number of free articles. Link | Add comment

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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."

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