Winnipeg Free Press: Pay-As-You-Go News

Last week the Winnipeg Free Press announced it is implementing a “pay as you go” paywall model. Think “iTunes for news,” where readers make

Last week the Winnipeg Free Press announced it is implementing a “pay as you go” paywall model. Think “iTunes for news,” where readers make a small payment, called a micropayment, for each article they read. In this particular model, Free Press readers, or Freeps, will pay $0.21* per article.As an alternative, readers can purchase a full digital subscription for $13.47* per month, after a 30-day free trial. Those who already subscribe to the print or digital editions of the newspaper will receive unlimited online access with their subscriptions.To explain the change, the newspaper created this fun video called “Key of Bart: Another Kick at a Paywall,” produced by the Winnipeg Free Press to the tune of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” This a clever way to explain to readers that the publisher needs to remain in control and, in order to be sustainable, they need literal buy-in from their readers.According to Nieman Lab, the Free Press is the first newspaper in North America to come up with this pay-as-you paywall model, though the Dutch start-up Blendle has been exploring the idea for a while. The Free Press has been using a metered paywall since 2011. The goal with the new system is to draw in the casual reader who normally wouldn’t pay for online news. Based on the newspaper’s data, this type of consumer reads an average of 15 articles per month. At $0.21 per article, that consumer would pay $3.15 to read the same number of stories.Insider Take:This is an interesting subscription business model, and we are eager to see if it takes off. As noted in the Nieman Lab article, it is likely that the Free Press will experience a dip in readership and revenue initially. This will come from the implementation of micropayments but also the mandatory registration of ANYONE to the site before they can read content. Many consumers, particularly younger ones, will be fine with this, but it will turn others away.For now, the Free Press says the micropayment price tag is a starting point and is subject to change based on their experience with readers. They are willing to consider other price points, and may even offer different types of news at different prices. For example, news may cost more than a weather update.The key question is how will this work in terms of registration and making payments. It needs to be as simple as iTunes and Amazon. How the Free Press implements this idea will be critical to its success.Assuming the payment process is seamless, we like the ingenuity of the Free Press and their willingness to find a paywall model that works for the publication as well as for its readers. Those driving the change seem to be innovative, but also flexible, trying to find the middle ground that will win over casual readers while providing real value – and personalized content – to their current subscribers and their advertisers. We like their approach, and we’ll follow the story to see how this micropayment model evolves and whether other North American media outlets follow suit.*All dollar amounts shown are in U.S. dollars.  

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