Comments on: Newspaper Association of America shows new trends in paywalls

By: Lou Phelps

Lou Phelps — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:36:33 +0000

In small markets – county seat dailies in upper midwest – we’ve gone to metered paywalls from open access, allowing five stories a month. Very minor negative reaction. Contact me at Phelps, Cutler & Assocites at phelpscutler@aol.com.

By: E.W.

E.W. — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:56:49 +0000

We are skeptical of publisher reports of paywall success.

There are many ways to circumvent pay-to-read programs and publishers are loathe to admit when the schemes don’t yield a crowd of enthusiastic buyers.

Why would a savvy reader pay for digital access, when every major story is available from many free sources? Cable and broadcast deliver the same stuff — quicker, free and with sound and motion.

My guess is that newspapers report every hit on their websites, but ignore readers’ quick exit when the paywall appears.

Auditing is suspect and the lamentable fact is most small/medium newspaper content is not worth the extra cost of digital access.

But why not try it? Paywalls may produce extra revenue and they cost very little to administer.

There are simply too many news sources for paywalls to work, honestly and over time. It is difficult to promote the system and advertisers should be suspicious about the numbers and value on on-line pay-to-read subscribers.

Newspapers’ circulation claims are already suspect. Unverified paywall numbers add to the fog of phony audience claims.

If a reader buys a digital subscription, what does he stop buying? Readers do not have media budgets that are infinitely expandable.

By: Constance Hammond

Constance Hammond — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 18:40:09 +0000

Thanks for the interesting article.

BTW: just tried sharing on Google + (this article and one other on the site)…is your share functionality broken? I ended up having to manually share b/c the G+ box disappears too quickly.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:19:41 +0000

Ms. Owen,
The means to override paywalls are simple.
David Wier lays it out very well here: http://www.7×7.com/arts/giant-holes-new-york-times-new-paywall
That this isn’t currently well known by the public only — in my opinion — supports the argument that readership is declining in both print and online.
In “Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism” from Pew in January 2012 found that ” … 23% of survey respondents say they would pay $5 a month to get full access to local newspaper content online. When asked if they would pay $10 per month,18% of adults say yes.”