For the last several years newspapers have been struggling to find a way to create profit for their online content. In the past newspapers and major publications all over the country created revenue from advertising in their daily, weekly, and monthly print issues. But the Internet has changed the way citizens acquire their news. Print publications are on the decline and journalists are struggling to find work. The future may appear coarse for journalists entering the field. But all hope is not lost, yet.
The New York Times recently implemented what is known as a paywall for their online content, similar if not identical to that of their print version. The key difference between the two is their online content is updated frequently throughout the day whereas the print version is issued in the morning and contains the most important stories from the day before. Online content is quickly becoming more valuable than ever before because of the rapid pace of updates. The New York Times staff was not naïve to this phenomenon and decided to act by enforcing a paywall. Here’s how it works: a reader may visit the New York Times online site and view up to twenty premium content stories- some stories are not considered premium and may be viewed as many times as the reader prefers. Once the individual has reached the twenty story limit he or she must pay a monthly subscription to continue viewing stories until that month is over, and the process can be repeated the following month.
The Times implemented their paywall in 2011 at a cost of $40 million. Given the nature of online content the paywall seems to be a gamble and a rather hefty one at that. Not only is it a gamble, one could basically call it an experiment. The Times’ paywall is essentially useless due to its lack of resistance. It is porous and easy to breach with a little know-how. Anyone with any Internet savvy could easily clear their history and cache once they have reached the twenty story limit and continue reading without interruption.
The Dallas Morning News has also implemented a paywall, however, they allow less free views than many of their competitors. The cost per week for the Dallas Morning News online is an outrageous $2.31 but the monthly cost is only $9.24 which is far more reasonable.
Paying for high quality news is not a foreign concept to loyal news readers. However, many readers have enjoyed the luxury of viewing newspaper content online for free since newspapers began providing it on the web. Forcing readers to pay for something they enjoyed for free in the past may not bode well for the industry.
Not only is a paywall a deterrent for loyal online readers like myself it’s a problem for the younger generations. Younger folks, specifically college age, are not likely to pay for any news at all. For many generations nearly all online content has been provided for free since these generations began using the Internet. Trying to change the status quo might be ineffective at this current juncture. Also, it is incredibly easy to find free websites that have the same information as the news sites. As a future writer and journalist I want and might even need for news to be profitable on the web. But enforcing these silly paywalls is not the answer to online news’ financial woes. I truly believe that news organizations, specifically print, would be better served urging advertisers to begin investing more heavily on their online content.
But according to an article on Mashable it’s not just getting newspapers to focus their efforts towards online advertising, it’s about decreasing the cost. According to the story newspaper advertising costs $6.99 CPM which is 177% higher than the national average. It has been well documented that newspapers have lost a large chunk of their advertising revenue but that is hard to maintain when social media advertising costs a CPM rate of $0.56. No advertiser is going to waste money on a news site when they have social media at their disposal reaching thousands, maybe even millions more.
Eventually quality news is going to be online and print will finally meets its slow awaiting death. With that in mind the reality is that newspapers need to find a way to be profitable without charging users for the content. Back when newspapers were the supreme word of the land and advertisers were held at their mercy, people didn’t mind a paying a small subscription fee to enjoy the daily newspaper with a cup of coffee in the morning. But Internet comes with a cost and people do not want to pay for online content when they already pay for the avenue that provides it. I’m convinced that advertising is the answer to newspapers online profitability woes. But there is likely a myriad of ways to solve that problem that is beyond my knowledge. Advertising may just be the tip of the iceberg.
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