Do Paywalls Change the Engagement Equation? - The Huffington Post
Jake Batsell seems to think so, saying that while advertising-driven models of digital journalism aim to maximize page views, when news organizations introduce online subscriptions "it reconfigures the benchmarks for success."
Which leads to the question: What are online readers willing to pay for digital content?
It's one of those complex issues troubling publishers, editors and reporters who have to worry about producing enticing content to compete with the plethora of digital fare, and, ensure the success of their revenue streams.
Via
Lelio Simi
Paywalls are gradually changing, giving way to more osmosis between what is inside them and what can be accessed and shared by those who haven't paid up for it.
Erecting rigid barriers around news content may not be the best strategic move if your competitors cover the same ground and interests that you focus on.
On PandoDaily, Hamish Mckenzie reports that the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both offer great examples of how to manage paywalls in a more effective fashion, by utilizing them more as “passes” "that give subscribers access to a publisher’s content wherever that content may be", rather than being rigid gates where no trespassing is enforced in a military way.
As a matter of fact "both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal let anyone read their content for free, provided they find it via Facebook, Twitter, or Google. They know that it’s easy to get around the paywalls in other ways..."
"The “paywalls” we’re seeing today, however, are different and place more emphasis on the first syllable of the word. Call this Phase Two of the paywall. The newspapers want you to pay, but the walls are lower and more permeable.
...They know that it’s easy to get around the paywalls in other ways – such as deleting the extraneous code pasted onto the end of a story’s URL – but they figure the costs of “losing” the revenue opportunities on those stories are lower than the gains they make from the people who prove willing to pay a subscription."
Rightful. Insightful. 7/10
Full article: http://pandodaily.com/2012/12/24/our-understanding-of-paywall-needs-to-change/