Those Who Get It ... And Those Who Will
When I first started in new media (DallasNews.com, circa 2000), a friend of mine, Mike McAllister, described his belief that there were two kinds of media people, "those who get it, and those who don't."
Well after reading more about the various pay-wall strategies out there for online media, I would like to offer my own version. There are "those who who get it, and those who soon will."
Enter Gary Pruitt, chief executive with McClatchy Co., he explained to analysts that "we tend to believe that the overwhelming model will be a free, ad-supported model." And to back that up, he reported his company's online ad revenue rose 15 percent in the fourth quarter and accounted for nearly 16 percent of total ad revenue, up 5 percent since last year.
Contrast that with Newsday, which moved its content behind a paywall in October of 2009. About 3 months later, they've sold 35 online subscriptions according to The New York Observer.
“Internal research shows that Newsday’s Web site is an extremely popular new benefit to hundreds of thousands of Long Island Cablevision households." Translation: Subscribers who don't pay
"Given the number of households in our market that have access to Newsday’s Web site as a result of other subscriptions, it is no surprise that a relatively modest number have chosen the pay option.” Translation: Yeah, we're not surprised 35 people subscribed, we're shocked. Maybe we should rethink this paywall thing.
There should be room for pay content when positioned smartly with additional services or more convenient delivery methods or micro payments, but throwing up the blanket pay wall seems short-sighted at best. For now, Newsday is sticking by the fact that 35 subscribers is no problem, but it's hard to imagine the exec who pitched the pay wall using a slide of subscriber projections in the double digits in the presentation.
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