Taking its cue from The New York Times, Gannett Co., Inc. announced last week that it will begin implementing online subscriptions for every one of its 80 community news websites, including their related mobile platforms. Local sites, like Cincinnati.com, will put up a “leaky paywall,” allowing readers to access 5 to 15 articles per month before being asked to subscribe. Pricing will be determined by paper and by the market. However, the company’s flagship periodical, USA Today, will not be instituting a paywall or online subscription offer.Meanwhile, some local papers that already have online subscription offers are tweaking them to increase revenues. Delaware’s largest paper, The News Journal, announced that print subscribers will no longer get free access to the companion website, DelawareOnline.com. Readers will have to now pays separately for print and online access, a technique that has been successfully employed by magazines like Consumer Reports, but not yet by newspapers (to my knowledge).Whether local sites can really compete with free immediate news via TV and other sites to gain subscription dollars is still uncertain. Niche publications and national news sites seem to have a better time of it, here in the U.S. and abroad.
Launch News: Gannett and Delaware’s News Journal Put Up Paywalls
Taking its cue from The New York Times, Gannett Co., Inc. announced last week that it will begin implementing online subscriptions for every one
- Filed in Industry Announcements, Subscriber Only
Up Next
Register Now For Email Subscription News Updates!
Search this site
You May Be Interested in:
Join our 'Payment Teardown' webinar with Butter CEO, Vijay Menon, on May 8th
Do you understand laws targeting your subscription business? We invite you to check