With advertising revenues falling, online news outlets are increasingly in a dilemma, whether to charge their readers a ‘subscription fee’ to access and consume news on their platforms (Rusbridger, 2019). Hence, it has been argued that newspapers should start thinking of changing their economic model of information, as in the digital era, news and information are being consumed at a fast pace and on demand by readers (Rusbridger, 2019).
A digital mechanism that separates the paid content from free content on a website is known as a ‘pay-wall’ (Sjovaag, 2015). A pay-wall is a paradigm shift from advertisements to ‘subscription’ (Sjovaag, 2015). There are two types of models based on this concept- ‘frequency-based’ and ‘content-based’ (Sjovaag, 2015). For example, you could either get the Financial Times for a certain charge for a period of time, and get access to all their articles, or you could pay a certain subscription fee to access and read only a certain number of their articles.
A question of ‘monetisation’ arises: what sort of content is charged and what content is available for free to the readers (Sjovaag, 2015). However, a subscription fee or pay-wall could have two potential consequences (Pattabhiramaiah, Sriram & Manchanda, 2018). Firstly, the level of engagement amongst the readers could dwindle or bolster (Pattabhiramaiah, Sriram & Manchanda, 2018). Secondly, there could be a ‘spill-over effect’ on the print version of the newspaper (Pattabhiramaiah, Sriram & Manchanda, 2018).
These consequences are a result of anything online being viewed as an ‘inferior good’, as people would rather spend their income on offline goods (such as a printed newspaper) (Carson, 2015). Hence, the model of paywall has received quite a bit of criticism. It goes against the openness of social media for news outlets to block content through paywalls (Sjovaag, 2015). Raising concerns over what the future of journalism would look like, where in views and voices could be restricted and suppressed, due to the monetary interests of news organisations (Sjovaag, 2015).
The criticism mirrors what the public thinks about paying for online news. Despite over half of Britons consuming news and information online, 52% have never enrolled for a subscription (Ibbetson, 2020). This is because the data shows that with the thirst for availability of free services, such as Sky News and BBC, not going dry, and as mentioned above about the spending preference on offline outlets (Ibbetson, 2020). However, when compared to countries such as the US and Norway, the UK consumes substantially less news online (Fletcher, 2020). Although it has to be noted that newspapers, like the Washington Post and the Telegraph, have traditionally attracted the most online readers (Fletcher, 2020).
Paywalls and subscription models could benefit the news outlets to recover revenue in the short run; to reap the full benefit, they must augment a new branding design and provide readers with high-quality and diverse content (Sjovaag, 2015; Fletcher, 2020).
Although newspapers like The Guardian have survived the economic tide, due to its Scott Trust, I’d say it’s about time to revamp their user experience! (Carson, 2015; Rusbridger, 2019).
Bibliography
Carson, A. (2015). Behind the newspaper paywall – lessons in charging for online content: a comparative analysis of why Australian newspapers are stuck in the purgatorial space between digital and print. Media, Culture & Society, 37(7), 1022-1041. doi: 10.1177/0163443715591669
Fletcher, R. (2020). How and Why People are Paying for Online News – Reuters Institute Digital News Report. Retrieved 13 January 2022, from https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/how-and-why-people-are-paying-for-online-news/
Ibbetson, C. (2020). Do people pay for news? | YouGov. Retrieved 13 January 2022, from https://yougov.co.uk/topics/media/articles-reports/2020/06/19/why-wont-brits-pay-news-subscriptions
Pattabhiramaiah, A., Sriram, S., & Manchanda, P. (2018). Paywalls: Monetising Online Content, 1-57. Retrieved from https://www.scheller.gatech.edu/directory/faculty/pattabhiramaiah/pubs/Draft_NYTPaywall_R4_Final.pdf
Poynter. (2020). Removing Paywalls on coronavirus coverage is noble. It also makes no sense [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/removing-paywalls-on-coronavirus-coverage-is-noble-it-also-makes-no-sense/
Rusbridger, A. (2019). Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters. Canongate Books.
Sjovaag, H. (2015). Introducing the Paywall. Journalism Practice, 1-19. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2015.1017595
