Cox to Convert to Metered Paywall for “My” Sites This Summer

Starting in July, Cox Media Group will begin using metered paywalls instead of hard paywalls for the paid versions of four of its newspaper

Starting in July, Cox Media Group will begin using metered paywalls instead of hard paywalls for the paid versions of four of its newspaper sites, reports NetNewsCheck in an exclusive interview with Mark Medici, Cox’s senior vice president of audience strategy. The change will affect Cox’s four “My” sites, the paid versions of its free site

AJC Paywall

For example, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s free version is AJC.com. The paid version resides at MyAJC.com. Currently, MyAJC.com – which sports a very different, more traditional newspaper look than AJC.com – has a hard paywall, so website visitors can only see a few lines of a story before they hit the paywall (see sample at right). Print subscribers can access the stories once registered, but non-subscribers must choose one of two digital passes or subscribe to get full digital access for $8.99/month.

What’s particularly interesting about the AJC sites is that an article is written three different ways for three different audiences: print, free digital and paid digital. AJC.com was recently redesigned with millennials in mind, and only 15% of the content is written by staff and has a local focus. Yes, you read that right. Only 15% of the content is original.

The rest is curated from existing content with the AJC’s content management system. The editorial team measures the success of the original material, and tries to duplicate the formula for future stories. The metered paywall is being implemented to “align the strategies and treat all audiences the same,” says Medici.

Insider Take:

This is an interesting switch, and we are curious why they are moving to a metered paywall versus a hard paywall. The explanation from Medici doesn’t explain it clearly. In fact, it seems contradictory. If they are skewing content three ways to accommodate three different audiences, they recognize their audiences have different needs, so how are they treating all the audiences the same? Their explanation sounds like “marketing speak.”

Perhaps they are hedging their bets or possibly backpedaling on the hard paywall because the conversion rate is too low to continue to support their digital product, or they are banking on the fact that millennials are less likely to pay for their news when they can get it from other sources for free. They are trying to capture young readers when and where they can. That’s smart, but we’d prefer they say that outright rather than pretend they are doing their audiences a favor by treating everyone equally.

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