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Conjecture as paywall initiation divides opinion in a new era for online content

 

News Corp-owned newspaper The Times has officially closed its timesonline.co.uk website as it moves to its highly debated pay subscription model.  The new URL for the website of the newspaper is thetimes.co.uk and for The Sunday Times, thesundaytimes.co.uk.

 

The move signals a new era for the newspaper, which has been around since 1785. News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch has been touting a pay model for the paper following the threat to revenues after the global recession had a huge impact on advertising expenditure, especially across print media.

But the trouble started when newspapers starting giving away content for ‘free’ by having an online presence and classified advertising almost dried up. The pay model is Murdoch’s silver bullet as well as his way of protecting quality journalism.

Technological advancement

There’s no denying that technology, namely the internet and our universal access to it at any given time on a number of different devices, has critically altered the news cycle.  This cycle has also been shortened with the immediacy of online news and news delivered direct to our mobile phones, meaning competition in the news market has never before been so fierce. 

The new online editions aim to capitalise on moving images, dynamic infographics, interactive comment and personalised news feeds and will be suitable for phones, e-readers, tablets and mobile devices.

Nothing new

Readers of The Times and The Sunday Times will now be offered a day’s use for £1, or £2 for a week’s subscription.  Those readers who already subscribe to the print edition of the papers will not be charged for online access.

But The Times certainly isn’t the first publication to be charging for online content.  The New York Times announced in January that it would charge some frequent readers for access to its website.  The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times also have already adopted online subscription models.

However, such success in these pay models so far could be pinned to the niche markets in which they operate in and the demographics of the readers (those with high paying jobs and disposable incomes.)  It is doubtful that The Times will find the same success.

Digital education on the rise

Online news consumption is up 31% year-on-year but according to a recent Harris poll, 77% of adults have said they wouldn’t pay anything to read a newspaper’s stories online. And among those willing to pay, 19% would only pay between £1 and £10 a month; only 5% would shell out more than £10 each month.
But the British Business Survey 2005 named The Times as the UK’s leading daily newspaper for business people.

For the May period, The Times saw the smallest uplift in circulation out of the quality sector with a jump of 1.65% to 515,379. But The Sunday Times dropped 1.53% to 1,117,749.

The future..?

When Murdoch first announced the paid model last August, he said, “Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting."

And remember, he had a similar argument when he decided to launch pay-TV – but it seemed to pay off. As did Apple’s decision to charge for music downloads when everyone was getting them for free elsewhere.

There is speculation that the pay wall might drive up newspaper circulation, as a subscription to the newspapers gives access to the websites.
Murdoch’s solution may work, but only if it catches on and other publications follow suit.  We’ll certainly have a good indication by the end of the year after 6 months of ABC circulation reports.

 

Will you pay for online content?  Would be great to learn your thoughts below.

 

Source: Utalkmarketing.com

Edited by Simon Lewis | Only Marketing Jobs

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