@ UBS Media Week: Crovitz: More Opportunities For Local Media To Charge For Premium
As newspapers decide where to draw the paywalls, local media might have an easier time of figuring it out, said Journalism Online’s Gordon Crovitz. In a panel on local media at the UBS Media Week conference, Crovitz—somewhat apologetically—offered his company’s sales pitch tailored to subject at hand. “A decade ago, the question was to put a paywall up around the entire site or to simply go with a free-access, ad-supported model. Most made the latter choice and it made sense at the time. But now, the technology exists—sorry for the sales pitch—to segment your audience and determine who will pay and what they will pay for.”
In general, Crovitz said that news sites could target a 10 percent slice of its audience for paid content. “There’s one thing that stands out when we look at traffic patterns for local media,” Crovitz said. “The quality of the journalism at local papers is often unique. Unlike the major outlets, where there’s a lot of overlap of coverage, that differentiates local media. Being able to offer news that you can’t get by just going to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is a plus in this market.”
Posted In: Advertising, Media & Publishing, Newspapers, Events, UBS Media Week

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