Two new developments in the news niche this week. One, The Washington Post announced it plans to start charging users for online access sometime in the summer. And two, Andrew Sullivan, who launched an independent paywall site with much fanfare earlier this year, announced that he’s lowering his metered access count from 10 articles in 30 days to 5 free articles in 60 days.
The Post’s announcement is significant since it’s been one of the few national papers, alongside USA Today, to hold out on online subscriptions. But it’s been clear for some time that they need to — just this past weekend, I received a telemarketing call from The Post, trying to sell me on how much I can save through the coupons available in their Sunday edition. As a national institution, The Post can’t afford to be that out of touch for much longer.
Unfortunately, Monday’s announcement indicates that it still might be. Right now, it looks like The Post will continue to allow free access to all digital products for students, teachers, school administrators, government employees and military personnel — a significant portion of the site’s audience. While I understand the journalism impulse and commitment to provide a public service free of charge, there are more financially sustainable models. For example, The Post could create a generous meter online, but charge for all tablet products. Time and again, consumers have proven that they don’t mind paying for convenience.
Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan’s recalibration of The Dish’s meter is the least surprising development this year. As I wrote in January, Sullivan did a few things right (and rode the media frenzy with aplomb), but his business model had some serious holes. He seems surprised that sales have “flat-lined” after the media frenzy wore off, but any savvy subscription marketer would tell you that The Dish has murky subscriber benefits, and more importantly, high operating costs (around $1 million). It’s the same problem that forced The Daily to shut down.
Let’s be clear: Online subscriptions and metered paywalls can work, even for journalism and daily news. But it takes wisdom to create a business model that values both the public service journalism provides and the cost of keeping quality journalists employed at a living wage.
