Introducing the Paywall

Abstract

The article presents a longitudinal and comparative quantitative content analysis of the paywall strategies of three Norwegian online newspapers. The article analyses the open and closed content profiles of Aftenposten, Bergens Tidende and Stavanger Aftenblad before and after the walls were erected, and the content put behind the wall with the content open to the public free of charge, by comparing one week of data from each paper from 2012, 2013 and 2014 (N = 4018). The analysis compares two models for digital subscription--the metered model and the premium model. The research is operationalized as a question of monetization: what kind of content do online newspapers charge for, and what kind of content remains free? As the analysis demonstrates, the answers to these questions are not only linked to online-related conceptions of news values, they are also closely tied to the market position of the newspaper as a whole. Results show that the premium model primarily reserves content with local affiliation for subscription readers, while wire copy, syndicated content and immediacy news remain open to nonsubscribers. As such, open online news content is highly traffic-generating, while paywalled content protects the most valued and resource-demanding journalistic production of the newsroom.

Strategic Design Towards Platform Collaboration in The Newspaper Industry: A Design Science Research Study

“…To answer the research question, we draw on strategic alliance, digital platform, business model literature, and apply design science methodology to derive design principles for prototypes that resembles a collaborative subscription service [1,3,5]. These interrelated research streams are deemed to be suitable to identify positive conditions for collaboration from a technical and business viewpoint, as well as develop test scenarios to evaluate the effectiveness of different design principles.…”

“…In the newspaper industry context, business models studies have explored how credibility impacts a publisher's monetization strategies [34], the benefits of mobile apps to decrease the churn rate [35], the conversation rates of freemium business models [36], studies exploring relationship between free and paid news articles [1,37], or generic open business models in the Danish newspaper industry [38].…”

“…In recent years, though, an increasing number of publishers opted to replicate their traditional print business in the form of paywalls and digital subscriptions [1]. Yet, digital subscriptions have their own difficulties; First, after years of free content, publishers need to convince readers to pay for online content in the first place.…”

Metamorfosis de la prensa de referencia en el contexto digital: clickbait y estrategias de tabloide en Elpais.com

“…No obstante, la disyuntiva entre gratuidad y pago está lejos de quedar resuelta. La viabilidad de uno u otro modelo implica factores contextuales, que abarcan desde los contenidos susceptibles de ser cobrados al prestigio de la cabecera, la capacidad de atraer grandes audiencias o condiciones empresariales -como el apoyo del Scott Trust a The Guardian- (Arrese, 2015;Carson, 2015;Sjøvaag, 2015).…”

Reference press metamorphosis in the digital context: clickbait and tabloid strategies in Elpais.com

“…However, the dilemma between free access and payment is far from resolved. The viability of either model involves contextual factors, ranging from the contents for which charges could be made to the prestige of the publication, the ability to attract large audiences, or the business conditions, such as the Scott Trust which supports The Guardian (Arrese, 2015;Carson, 2015;Sjøvaag, 2015).…”