I‘m on break from my official duties at the Digital News Test Kitchen during June and July, but that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking and writing about digital-media trends. Over at my personal blog (where opinions are my own, and do not reflect those of the University of Colorado Boulder, its Journalism & Mass Communication program, or the Test Kitchen), I’ve written three posts in recent weeks that you might find interesting. I hope that they at least prompt some thoughts about the direction of digital news. –Steve
It’s not a ‘paywall’ when it’s ‘freemium’
The word “paywall” as applied to news websites sucks. It’s a negative word. If a consumer hears that a favorite news site is putting up a “paywall,” the response is highly likely to be: avoid!
Some news-site user monetization systems truly are “paywalls.” I’m fine with saying that The Times‘ (the UK one) website has a paywall, since you can’t read anything on that site without first taking out a paid subscription — other than rare occasions when The Times drops its paywall, such as it did when the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was taking place. (As a way for a news organization to get people to pay for reading content online, The Times’ approach is perhaps the dumbest one in existence. Latest reports put its digital subscriber base at 120,000; for a paper of its stature, I’d expect that figure to be much higher with a more-intelligent digital pay model.) …
In defense of fewer print editions
So much has been written about the New Orleans Times-Picayune cutting back to three days a week for print publication (and laying off a bunch of employees in the “digital-first” transition) that I hesitated adding to the word onslaught.
But I haven’t seen many people defending the move, which results in the largest major U.S. metropolitan area without a daily printed major newspaper. Then I’ll step up to the plate. …
10, 15 free web articles a month: Is this a mistake? (Yes!)
I think it’s safe to say that what Walter Isaacson and Steven Brill started — a wave of newspaper websites putting up “metered paywalls” where there’s a subscription or membership fee required for site visitors who want to read more than X number of articles per month — has taken hold in a big way.
It’s not yet that a majority of newspaper websites have adopted this model, but more and more keep announcing just that. The latest: the San Diego U-T (formerly known as the Union-Tribune). The trend has spread to Australian newspapers.
It’s often said that newspaper publishers act like sheep, and that’s clearly the case with “going paid” online. …
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