{"id":1772,"date":"2016-12-11T02:15:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T02:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zacwhu.wordpress.com\/?p=532"},"modified":"2016-12-11T02:15:39","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T02:15:39","slug":"whats-this-all-about-then-pros-and-cons-of-paywalls-online-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacwhu.wordpress.com\/2016\/12\/11\/whats-this-all-about-then-pros-and-cons-of-paywalls-online-newspapers\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s this all about then? Pros and Cons of Paywalls: Online Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Read<\/p>\n

As an Economics undergraduate and frequent newspaper reader, I have decided to focus the question posed on the newspaper industry.<\/p>\n

“Newspaper economics used to be dead simple,” (Preston, 2014)<\/a>. The ways in which Newspapers generated revenue was two-fold:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Receipts from the cover-price<\/li>\n
  2. Payments from advertisers who used newspaper to host its advert.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Over the last decade, the news industry has accelerated rapidly towards\u00a0the digital world. This has had a dramatic effect on the sales of print media. They have fallen steadily. With the decline in both the aforementioned revenue streams, some newspapers have decided to use a ‘paywall’ – A restriction on access to internet content often paid via a subscription, in order to recover the lost income.<\/p>\n

    9.6% decline in revenue from advertising in print media over the last year alone. Data Source: The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Pros and Cons of Paywalls<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    Having to pay to view an article can have a number of effects on the industry (i.e. content producer). For every positive effect, there appears to be a negative, which perhaps explains why only\u00a0some<\/em> newspapers charge for their online content.<\/p>\n

    Paywalls are a way of legitimising content.\u00a0Nolan reports that \u201csites offering very high quality proprietary longform journalism published on a frequent basis\u201d are ideal candidates for a paywall because the alternative content available online for free is virtually non-existent (Nolan, 2012)<\/a>. However, if the content isn’t very unique or specialist e.g. reports on football matches, putting a paywall on content will simply facilitate the redirecting of web traffic to the competition\u00a0who offer it for free.<\/p>\n

    Creating a subscription service can create a reliable revenue stream. Using a paywall creates a base of subscribers (who can then easily identify and target) who are consistently paying access fees, and thus, are a much more consistent\u00a0source of income. On the other hand, revenue from advertisers will fall due to a decline in views. For sites with many visitors, creating web traffic to inflate the price of advertising on their site is a much more worthy of investment than a paywall is. This approach is used by Buzzfeed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Paywalls are also a protective measure as well as a revenue generating one. It decreases the likelihood of work being ‘stolen’ and used without citation. That said, just a simple Google search leads to numerous\u00a0results with descriptions on ‘hacking’ paywalls.<\/p>\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    Paywalls exist on 70 percent of US daily newspapers\u2019 websites, up from 47 percent in 2012 (Stroud, 2014)<\/a>, which is evidence of the benefits of their usage. This figure is still shy of 90% predicted however.\u00a0(Lepitak, 2013)<\/a>.
    \nIf the idea of paying for news alarms you, you’re not alone as my video shows.<\/p>\n