Current, a nonprofit news organization for public media, is launching a metered paywall to cover its $1 million+ in annual operating costs. According to an announcement on the site, Current has four primary revenue streams: a generous grant from Wyncote Foundation, advertising revenue, donations and print subscriptions. Print subscriptions, however, have dwindled in recent years, and more and more readers are getting their news from online Current.org rather than the print publication.

“Why a paywall? We spent a long time studying various options to raise revenue to sustain – and hopefully to expand – our service to you. The paywall gives us the opportunity to fund our basic news and information business. If Current is valuable to you, you will value it. It’s that simple. We all love free stuff. Most people will not pay for something unless they are compelled to do so. We can’t continue to serve public media without financial resources,” says the announcement. “Unlike many trade journals, Current has never charged readers for online access. We gave our content away for free, just as public radio and TV do. But that’s no longer an option for Current.”

Launching its digital subscription program June 15, Current has partnered with Wallit, a paywall and payment processing startup owned by iMoneza, that will process payments. Subscribers can store additional money in their online wallet to pay for stories or subscriptions at other Wallit-managed sites.

For readers who choose not to subscribe, a number of Current features will still be available including their newsletter, job ads, directory of services, home page, category pages and obituaries. However, all readers must register on the site and will be able to access “just a few free articles per month before being required to subscribe.” Some of Current’s content will only be available to subscribers. Readers who access Current through a station-owned subscription will need to check with their management team to see what they have individual access to.

While Current is vague about how many “just a few free articles” will be, we hit the paywall after reading two articles.

Subscribers to Current’s monthly print publication will receive a free, all-access digital subscription. Those who want a digital-only subscription will pay $10 a month or $89 a year with discounts application for students, retirees and members of the Association of Independents in Radio, the National Federal of Community Broadcasters and the Institute for Nonprofit News. Public radio, TV stations and advertisers will get digital access when they purchase five or more subscriptions. Organizations can also purchase a “universal” subscription for access for all of their employees with a station email address.

In its FAQs, Current explains that they are a “very lean operation” with eight full-time employees, part-time staff and freelancers. The company’s budget covers primarily salaries, freelance fees, printing, postage and travel to public media conferences.

In a column by executive director Julie Drizin, Current makes the following plea to its readers:

“Some of you have asked what is happening with the print edition of the paper. Perhaps you didn’t even know there was a print edition! Well, we put a lot of effort into producing it. But because it’s clear that more and more of our readers are exclusively going online to get their public media news, we are compelled to embrace new strategies to finance our reporting. The future of Current is up to you, the people of public media. We may be putting up a paywall, but please know that our doors and minds remain open to your ideas. So come on over and tell us what you think. And subscribe, subscribe, subscribe!”

Current is joining a long list of media outlets using a metered paywall. The American Press Institute published this list of types of paywalls as of February 2016. At 62 percent, digital subscriptions with metered paywalls were the most popular of the three paywall types: metered, freemium and hard.

Insider Take:

As the media landscape evolves, news outlets are adjusting their business models to remain sustainable. The organization noted that its print subscribers were declining as more and more readers were getting access to their news online for free, a familiar scenario. Current made the decision to capitalize on that to capture revenue from digital subscribers. We like that Current disclosed the change weeks before implementation, addressing FAQs up front and explaining their rationale for their decision.

They also chose a reasonable price point with discounts for institutional “universal” subscriptions and specific classes of subscribers. We question, however, how readers will feel about a metered paywall offering only two articles per month. That doesn’t seem to be enough for a new reader to really get the flavor of Current’s value.