$35 a Month for News?
Saturday, April 10, 2010
When newspapers first began to post news online in the '90s, they charged for that online access. Most of those newspaper sites became completely free to users later.
However, according to paidContent.org paywalls may soon be the trend again. PaidContent.org has found 20 newspaper sites that charge up to $35 a month for online content. $35 seems to be a little excessive. Especially, when a person can go to a newsstand and buy print edition for much cheaper.
This could be a ploy to get people to buy newspapers and get circulation numbers back up. So even if people don't want to pay $35 a month, the newspaper will still make money.
None the less, these 20 newspapers are the model for the hundreds of other newspapers that are still debating to paywall or no to paywall their Web sites. If the pioneering 20 newspapers are successful financially with their paywall venture, there could soon be a lot more than 20 news sites that are charging up to $35 a month for their content.
