Critics of the Washington Post say that the only approach that will solve the newspaper’s financial problems is to put up a paywall around their content like everyone else — but while that might buy time, it’s not a long-term strategy for new-media success. Read more at GigaOM »
USA Today is taking advantage of Gannett’s custom built CMS system that will let it select and curate content for the growing number of readers who are reading news on mobile devices. The move may help the company reboot a tired brand for the digital age. Read more »
The Houston Chronicle and Crain’s New York announced new paywall initiatives, while Newsweek editor-in-chief Tina Brown suggested that the now digital-only magazine is heading in that direction. A news roundup. Read more »
The Washington Post’s new editor, former Boston Globe editor Marty Baron, faces a mountain of problems at the newspaper, which has seen circulation and revenues fall dramatically. Here are some areas he needs to focus on in order to turn the sinking ship around. Read more at GigaOM »
As costs continue to rise along with pageviews, Reddit is looking to its community of users for help by promoting a membership model called Reddit Gold — an approach that other media entities might want to consider instead of just putting up a paywall. Read more at GigaOM »
A Columbia/Indiana University study on reactions to the New York Times paywall suggests that newspapers enacting paywalls should emphasize financial need, not profit, when explaining them to readers. Still, many readers won’t pay. Read more »
Paywall startup Tinypass, which is based in New York City and works with small digital publishers, is expanding metering options to its users. Read more »
A Columbia Journalism Review columnist argues that a free or advertising-supported news model inevitably leads to lower-quality journalism. But there is no reason why ads can’t co-exist with high-quality reporting just as easily as they can subsidize pageview-driven clickbait, despite the CJR’s claims to the contrary. Read more at GigaOM »
Many newspapers and media outlets are implementing paywalls in a desperate attempt to generate revenue, but some players — including the political blog network Talking Points Memo — are offering their readers a membership-with-benefits experience instead. It’s an approach that more media players should probably consider. Read more at GigaOM »
What happens when a UK newspaper starts charging its American online readers? Not enough, according to The Independent, which says it is likely to undo its model after a year in place. Read more »
While it has gotten attention recently for the launch of its new online business offering, Atlantic Media has been making a lot of innovative and interesting moves in transforming its business from print to digital — moves that other media companies would do well to emulate. Read more at GigaOM »
Digital subscription platform Press+ says 39 percent of its client publishers now offer fewer than 10 articles free per month before a reader hits a paywall. On average, the company says, publishers offer 11 free articles per month, down from 13 at the beginning of 2012. Read more »
Some proponents of newspaper paywalls — including a columnist in the Columbia Journalism Review — argue that charging readers for content results in better journalism than the free and advertising-supported model used by many digital publishers. But the evidence for this assertion is dubious at best. Read more at GigaOM »
The Journal Register newspaper chain has filed for bankruptcy for a second time, which some say means its “digital first” vision is flawed. But all it really means is that the kind of transformation required for the newspaper business will be measured in decades. Read more at GigaOM »
Although the ad-driven business model behind Facebook looks similar to that of a newspaper, the crucial difference is that the social network knows a lot more about its users. The more focus that newspapers put on doing the same, the better off they will be. Read more at GigaOM »
As more newspapers roll out metered paywalls and subscription plans, trying to duplicate the success of the New York Times, some journalists hope that being funded by readers will help stop the ad-driven pageview race and save quality journalism. But this argument is fundamentally flawed. Read more at GigaOM »
Is offering your readers membership benefits a better approach to revenue generation than putting up a hard paywall? The tech commentary site Techdirt thinks so, and has launched some interesting new features that other traditional media companies might want to pay attention to. Read more at GigaOM »
The New York Times has chosen former BBC director Mark Thompson to be its new CEO. But is a man who has spent his entire career with a government-funded broadcaster the right person to reinvent the legendary newspaper at a time of almost unprecedented upheaval? Read more at GigaOM »
Research from the Newspaper Association of America shows that most newspapers with paywalls are using a metered model, and free digital access for print subscribers is not a given. Read more »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
The Washington Post is one of the few major newspapers left without some kind of digital paywall or subscription model, but despite the financial pressures on the company, publisher Donald Graham says he remains committed to not charging readers for the newspaper’s content online. Read more at GigaOM »
Piano Media, the digital news payments kiosk through which several Slovenian and Slovakian publishers have begun charging for some of their content, is opening shop in its third country, Poland, as paidContent speculated last month. Six publishers (Agora, Murator, Polskapresse, Media Regionalne, Edytor and Axel Springer-Ringier) […] Read more »
Tech blogger Ben Brooks was tired of running an ad-supported site. So he decided to add a modified paywall to his website, The Brooks Review. For inspiration, he looked to the New York Times. Read more »
At our recent paidContent 2012 conference FT’s Rob Grimshaw and Piano Media’s Tomas Bella discuss not just the future of online content payments, but also how to most effectively price your content when there are free alternatives elsewhere. Read more »
News Corp. billionaire Rupert Murdoch has confirmed that the company is considering splitting itself in two, with the newspaper assets spun off as a separate entity. What would — or could — the digital future look like for that standalone newspaper unit? Here are a few ideas. Read more at GigaOM »
Newspapers haven’t really had a monopoly on the news or the advertising market for some time, but they continue to behave as though they do. If they are to survive the transition to a digital future, they will have to learn how to compete for both. Read more at GigaOM »
In an interview with GigaOM, the editor of MIT’s venerable Technology Review talks about why he has decided to take a “digital first” approach to publishing the magazine, why he doesn’t plan to implement a paywall — and what he sees as an alternative. Read more at GigaOM »
Journalism professor Tim McGuire, a long-time newspaper editor and Pulitzer Prize judge, says there is much upheaval in the media industry but a lot of potential as well — provided media entities give up their gatekeeper role and learn to serve their readers better. Read more at GigaOM »
Is Warren Buffett’s recent acquisition of the Media General chain a brilliant gamble, or an indication of his faith in the long-term prospects of newspapers? Clay Shirky argues it is neither — he says Buffett misunderstands some fundamental things about the business he has bought. Read more at GigaOM »
FT.com Managing Director Rob Grimshaw made no secret of his distaste for Apple’s in-app subscription terms at padContent 2012. iOS apps don’t work for publishers, he told the audience, and the Financial Times’ decision to leave the iTunes store was a success. Read more »
It’s been a decade now that online publishers have wrestled with the same wretched dilemma: give content away for free and lose money or put up a paywall and lose audience. Now, finally, the logjam is beginning to break. Read more »
“Virtually every publication in the world right now would desperately like to be 100 percent digital,” said Flipboard editorial director and Time Inc. vet Josh Quittner said at Internet Week this week, as publishers debated how to monetize digital magazines. Read more »
The news that Canada’s largest newspaper is launching a paywall brings back memories of an earlier paywall attempt, and how that led one GigaOM writer to the discovery of blogging — and three reasons why paywalls are not the solution to the newspaper industry’s problems. Read more at GigaOM »
Paywall solutions are having a bad month. Google shuttered One Pass at the end of April. Now paywall and news aggregation site Ongo, which launched in January 2011 with $12 million in funding from the New York Times, Washington Post and Gannett, is closing. Read more »
Should the New York Times charge hedge funds or large financial institutions more for early access to market-moving stories like its Walmart exposé? Reuters blogger Felix Salmon says yes, but doing this would fundamentally change what the New York Times and its journalism are all about. Read more at GigaOM »
Some traditional media entities seem to be hoping for a single magic bullet that will cure their revenue problems, but it is more likely success will come from making a number of smaller bets. Unfortunately, large media players don’t tend to be good at that. Read more at GigaOM »
Newspapers everywhere are tinkering with “metered paywalls” in the hopes of hitting up the right mix of exclusion and access. The Los Angeles Times became the latest such paywall player last month, limiting readers to 15 stories a month unless they pay for a digital subscription. Read more »
As newspapers lock content behind paywalls, marketers are opening that same content right back up again through campaigns that provide reade… Read more »
If only more readers were this dedicated to print newspapers. Early Saturday morning, authorities pulled down a man who was scaling the New… Read more »
It’s been a big week in newspapers starting to charge for content. First it was Gannett; now the Los Angeles Times will launch a metered pay… Read more »
