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Many newspapers and news corporations are changing to using a paywall for their online content from the US to the UK and beyond.
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Many newspapers and news corporations are changing to using a paywall for their online content from the US to the UK and beyond. Paywalls essentially only allow access to the content of a site, in this case, the news articles, when users have paid a subscription fee. A hard paywall will allow no access at all to non-subscribers. A soft paywall like a metered paywall will allow a limited use and then when that limit is reached, direct the user to subscribe for any more content.
There is a lot of discussion about papers moving to these models, the idea of whether the internet and content on it should be free, or whether these businesses have a right to charge for the product and service they offer. After all physical papers have to be paid for and no-one complains about that. Some think the best paywall is a soft paywall because by allowing a small sample users get to see what is on offer and are more likely to buy into a full subscription. It might mean letting them have access to a certain number of articles before cutting them off, it might be letting them view the headlines or a small part of the article.
It is a fact that more people are moving from actual printed newspapers to online ones. As a result newspaper publishers are looking at how to still generate revenue from the paper other than using ads that are not as a reliable income like subscriptions is. The hope with a metered paywall is that users will enjoy using your site enough that when their limited access ends, and the prompt to subscribe comes up, they click on that link and follow a simple and quick set of instructions to become a paid user.
It is true that some people will not want to pay and will go and look elsewhere for what they want. But it is the belief of those who support paywalls that even though readership numbers overall may drop, the better money generated from the best paywallorpaywall plugin will more than makeup for that. In fact, that would seem to be the case so far. Those newspapers who have made the move to a subscribed product are holding lower view numbers but are doing well still. This is likely in large part to how the brand loyalty most people feel towards their news. Most people use the same newspaper for their news and stick to that same one. If they are already Times readers, and it becomes a pay to use paper, most readers will accept that because they are loyal to their paper and they don't mind paying as long as it is for a fair price. Whether they use a hard paywall service or a soft, metered paywall, there is potential in having subscription fees.
