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Putting up a pay wall

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Beef03, Aug 17, 2011.

  1. We just went to a pay wall. Naturally, the backlash was fierce, albeit quite stupid, though we (as an industry) are more than partially to blame for their conditioned way of believing they should get our product for free. There was the occasional rational voice that asked the howlers why they expect to get their news for free, but those were certainly the exception.

    Anyhoo, it's early and I haven't heard whether it affected our print numbers, which were pretty strong to begin with. We didn't get a ton of online-only subscriptions right away, and I'm sure the page views are down at least a little, though I haven't heard those numbers either.

    The one encouraging thing I did hear is we had a ton of our print subscribers activate their online account (which is free with a print subscription but had to be activated to use). That was a good sign, because it means at the very least our print subscribers are also reading the web site during the day.

    Mr. President makes a good point. I'm sure a big part of the reason we had the courage to do this as a company was the fact we dominate our media market. There is no competing daily newspaper within 60 miles of us in any direction, no TV station in town (just bureaus from stations about an hour away) and most of the local radio stations' news broadcasts consist of them reading our stories on the air. So we were certainly in a position of strength to do this.

    However, Gomer also raises a good point. At some point, and not too far down the road, all news will be distributed electronically. And since the free/ad revenue model hasn't worked for hardly any newspaper to this point, we need to recondition readers to expect to have to pay for our product.
     
  2. Editude

    Editude Active Member

    We recently put up a well-chronicled pay model after the previous attempt was a Select whiff. I do find it odd that Media News is not giving a digital subscription to a print subscriber for free; customers who read the paper and view the website are among the most valuable and relevant.
     
  3. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    This is a very good point and Wisportswriter hit on it to. We also are the paper of record in our area, so that made it easier, although we are basically an hour-and-a-half between two major cities -- both of which have two major dailies each that are free online -- and they sort of cover the region but not really. We heard a lot of "so long I'm going to Paper X, because they aren't greedy, etc." But I think that was more the minority and there is talk that they are apparently looking at pay walls as well. It would be a lot more difficult if they were direct competition in our city, almost a wait for them to make the first move kind of deal.
     
  4. joe_schmoe

    joe_schmoe Active Member

    We went not too long ago. Not sure about the numbers thought they told us industry trends indicate print subscriptions go up when you put the paywall up. I just wonder if those numbers are just the people that used to subscribe then quit because the info was online for free.
    We actually have quite a bit of competition. Several TV stations cover all the same high schools and colleges and at least 3 other dailies cover most of our area as well and only one of those has a paywall. We just have better writers.

    With our paywall, we try to provide much more detailed coverage behind the paywall. News people put up videos and we have the extra photo packages, etc...They hope to have HS football highlights, but not sure how that will work because we don't have time to come in Friday night, keep stats, shoot video, write story, edit video, etc... But otherwise I'm all for the idea.

    We used to have a local radio station that would read our news pretty much verbatim over the air, so some of our reporters who knew their stories would be read would start putting in phrases like "the Podunk Press reported." "in an interview with the Podunk Press." If they were going to steal our work, they were going to give us credit, or at least be forced to change a phrase or two.
     
  5. Gomer

    Gomer Active Member

    One interesting thing happened last week at our place. We made all stories free to read after they'd been up for 24 hours.

    Like everything else, this decision was handed down to us, I found out about it by accident in fact. But the response I've seen locally has been positive. What worries me is if people now think 'oh, I'm fine with reading the news a day late and not paying anything.'

    Anybody else in this situation? Am I right to worry about it?
     
  6. UPChip

    UPChip Well-Known Member

    Ogden claims they're studying a paywall model but hasn't implemented it for fear that it will kill insert revenue - I suppose the logic is "If I'm already paying for the paper, I'm not going to pay for the paper version."
     
  7. JoJo

    JoJo Member

    My paper put up a paywall about a year ago. Shows the first couple of graphs of our stories then the rest is behind the wall. Of course the whiners were in full force for the first few months, but it's pretty much leveled out now. I heard our subscription numbers were doing well for those first few months. Not sure exactly how well.

    When we were free online, we were unrivaled in our area. Some of the towns in our coverage area have weeklies, but there were no other dailies around to really provide news.

    The worst thing to come out of us putting up our paywall is that it led to the birth of a free website (backed by money from a powerful family in town) that basically tries to publish the same things we do, including obits. I've heard quite a few of the cheapskate portion of our readers talk about how they go to our site to read the headlines and first 2 graphs then they go to the free site to read the rest. Bastards.
     
  8. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Most places with paywalls that I've seen have made it so that the print+online subscription is only slightly more, if more at all, than the online-only subscription. If anything, a well-developed paywall could be a boon to print subscriptions.
     
  9. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    Our paper strangely went the other way with it being slightly cheaper for the print and online combo than just the online version.
     
  10. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Like our stories? Let us print them out for you. We'll pay you if you do!

    Says a lot about online advertising revenue vs. print advertising revenue.
     
  11. Shoeless Joe

    Shoeless Joe Active Member

    The one thing I really wished they'd do, and I've been told by computer people it can be done through IP addresses or something, is make it not pay for people who obviously aren't in the area to go buy a paper or aren't subscriber level people. I used to get a bunch of readers for my stuff during college football season, but now that has obviously decreased.

    I'm sure it makes people mad to get a Google news alert and when they click on it can't really read the story. Someone in Georgia or Ohio or whatever wanting to read one story one time really isn't going to sign up for a subscription.
     
  12. UPChip

    UPChip Well-Known Member

    I never said it was good logic. I just said it was their logic.
     
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