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Media
Johnston take down their experimental paywalls
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 1 April 2010
So, this is interesting. Regional newspaper company Johnston Press is planning on dropping the paywalls it put up around some of its local papers as part of a pilot project to test the viability of charging for access to its online content.
Had the paywalls put up around the websites of six of its local papers been a success, it was thought Johnston Press would look to introduce a subscription system for its bigger regional titles, such as the Edinburgh daily broadsheet The Scotsman and the Leeds-based Yorkshire Post. But, according to the Press Gazette, the publisher’s experiment with paywalls hasn’t delivered overly positive results. A source told the trade website that subscriber numbers on one Scottish local paper was in the “low double figures”.
When they began the experiment, Johnston said the paywalls on six local papers were introduced to “get an understanding of what the customer dynamic is around paid-for content”. Different subscription systems were employed on each of the six titles. The publisher hasn’t officially commented on the results of the pilot project, but the Gazette says all six paywalls have come down sooner than was originally intended.
The Times, of course, is set to put a paywall around its website in June. Opinions are divided regards whether or not the Rupert Murdoch owned paper can successfully move its online operations to a subscription-based business model. It seems likely that national papers will have a better chance of making subscription services work than their regional counterparts, though the regional press need to find a viable online business model even more urgently than the nationals.
