Paywalls: Newspaper's New Best Friend

Earlier this year, the New York Times set up a paywall to limit the number of free views people could have for their online articles. Many people believed this would be a complete failure thinking people would simply refuse to pay for online articles, but the New York Times has proved those non-believers wrong.

At the end of it's third quarter, released October 20, 20ll, the Times revealed a quarter of a million readers payed at least $15 to access the online content of this paper. This shows it is possible to make a profit by implementing the paywall strategy.

This is a huge success for now just the Times, but the journalism industry as a whole. Because the Times showed they could profit off their online content, it is expected that many other media outlets will follow their lead.

The success of the paywall helps ease the mind of those who believed newspapers to be a dying entity. Newspapers are not dying, they are simply evolving with the new technologies introduced to the world.

Although the paywall has the potential to benefit the journalism industry, what does this mean for readers? If other newspapers begin to charge for their online material, will readers still be able to access those breaking stories immediately? Or will this slow down the rate at which news travels?

The way in which the paywall strategy has been implemented by the Times will help keep casual readers interacting with the online content. The Times allows each person 20 views per month before they demand their payment. This allows those who are not news enthusiasts to view the few articles that catch their attention without first having to hand over their credit cards.

With it's success at the Times, it can be predicted that many other major news companies will set up paywalls similar to this one to help raise their profits. This will enable the journalism profession to keep up to speed with the fast paced world we now all live in.

photo by DRB62 from creativecommons.com

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$35 a Month for News?

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.

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