Comments on: My personal take: 3 reasons I don’t like newspaper paywalls http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/ Wed, 22 May 2013 13:34:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Mathew Ingram http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-842023 Thu, 17 May 2012 23:20:28 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-842023 I agree, Matt — although of course you can read as many of our blog posts as you want without having to pay for them :-) thanks for the comment.

]]> By: Matt Frehner http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-842020 Thu, 17 May 2012 23:02:13 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-842020 I think the key to the success of The Globe’s paywall is going to be getting the meter just right — so that the vast majority of readers will have free access (like I did to this post), while some will pay for deeper access or exclusive content (like GigaOm Pro).

]]> By: JB http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-841145 Mon, 14 May 2012 19:32:05 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-841145 You are not their target audience (even if they think you are). Wsj is targeting price insensitive users; which you’ve proven above is not you.

That’s a major issue with monetization planning on publisher side: disconnect of who they want as demographic and who they get as demographic. If a publisher simply gates and gouges as much as possible with little planning they risk alienating their core demographic. This isn’t the paywalls fault but the trigger happy implementation.

]]> By: Shankar Saikia http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-841139 Mon, 14 May 2012 19:22:14 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-841139 HOW THE WALL STREET JOURNAL LOST A PRINT SUBSCRIBER

Last year I paid $207 for an annual subscription to the WSJ (online and print). This year they were going to charge me $455 to renew my subscription. They said that I was getting a deal because the online-only was about $200 and paper-only was going to be about $430.

Considering I spend 90% of my “news reading time” and get most of my news from blogs, Flipboard and Twitter, it did not make sense to spend $455 for a news source where I spend 10% of my time. I already pay with 90% of my “eyeballs” on the digital sources. So I cancelled my WSJ subscription. I doubt that I will resubscribe even if they offered me the old price.

There is a price I will pay for premium online content but I don’t like overpriced paywalls.

]]> By: JB http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-841005 Mon, 14 May 2012 01:22:08 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-841005 Reblogged this on Metered Paywall and commented:
Articles like these is like asking a kid why they don’t like something to be answered “just because”.

]]> By: JB http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-840988 Sun, 13 May 2012 21:31:22 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-840988 Yes most experts. An only be experts of what they already know. They know that outright paywalls don’t work so they assume all pay systems schemes will not work. I laughed at the quote that the nyt paywall revenue doesn’t cover ad losses because they aren’t related in that sense. Nyt is getting new revenue for something that was free And also bringing up the ad price on its protected properties, yet no one mentioned this. Again it’s really easy to say fail if you don’t live in this world and know all the facts.

]]> By: Greg Golebiewski http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-840985 Sun, 13 May 2012 21:09:46 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-840985 The good thing is there are systems that offer on-demand payments for selected content. Unfortunately, for years now experts, including C. Shirky mentioned in Mathew’s post, have been saying (a priory) they would never work. And, it is almost impossible to break that FALSE claim. No matter what data you show, from the success of iTunes (which uses micropayemnts) to Zynga to Facebook Credits — the experts always say micropayments do not work.

]]> By: JB http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-840975 Sun, 13 May 2012 20:00:21 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-840975 I really don’t agree with anything you’ve said. I don’t think there is enough room in these comments for my thoughts so I’ve created a rebuttal on my blog meteredpaywall.com at http://wp.me/p2qoGx-36

]]> By: Jonathan Strang http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-840953 Sun, 13 May 2012 16:52:20 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-840953 I think paywalls will just result in fewer papers. The host of Postmedia regional papers are just lackluster these days. You couldn’t pay me to read the Ottawa Citizen or Vancouver Sun. The Globe is a different matter, although I think you’re quite right that they would be better off giving premium content. Heck, I’ve been shocked that their iPhone app is free. I’d be willing to pay something for that convenient access point, especially if it helped improve their journalistic content and not just go to profit margins. But the smaller Postmedia papers are doomed if they pursue this. I get better local news from the Globe and OpenFile.

The really frustrating aspect of paywalls for me are international papers. I often reach my NYT limit, but I’m only interested in their special interest articles. Being Canadian, I have no need to read local or American news. But there’s no subscription model for international occasional readers. And if they do open up to people like me, their prime audience will figure it out quickly and complain. That just drives all of us to news bloggers. I’ve got no answers here, but you’re right that the paywall is a really unsatisfactory model.

]]> By: Serge http://gigaom.com/2012/05/12/my-personal-take-3-reasons-i-dont-like-newspaper-paywalls/#comment-840938 Sun, 13 May 2012 14:39:26 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=520726#comment-840938 Is there any successful example of an Internet-only daily newspaper? HuffPo, Atlantic, Buzzfeed, Politico simply don’t generate new news on a range of beats on a daily basis. Newspapers do, and so do radiop and tv to a lesser extent. Does anything that is Internet-only?

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