Chi-Town Business Weekly Erects a Paywall

Crain Communications building  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Beginning June 14, weekly business newspaper Crain's Chicago Business will go the metered paywall route on its ChicagoBusiness.com Web site, the journal announced today.

Online visitors can view 12 articles a month for free, after which they will be asked to dole out $59 for an annual subscription that will  also offer access to videos, blogs and 15 years worth of archived editions. Subscribers to both the Web site and print edition will pay $99 annually, though for a limited period, print subscribers can get free digital access.

Lee Not Free: Paywall-mania on the Horizon

Dibrary: Digital Newspapers (Photo credit: Mosman Library)

Buoyed by successful returns on paywalls erected for its Montana and Wyoming online newspapers (see "TUOL" post 8/2/11), Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, Inc. plans to charge subscribers for digital content at most of its holdings by the end of 2012, Thomson Reuters reports.

Lee Chair/CEO Mary Junck says the conglomerate plans to step up its metered payment model paywalls over the next three months. Lee owns 48 newspapers, co-owns four others, and counts another 300 specialty publications among its holdings. It boasts roughly 1.3 million subscribers among 23 states, according to the Thomson Reuters article.

Publisher Projects Paywall Proliferation

Image via Wikipedia"Good fences make good neighbors," poet  Robert Frost wrote in Mending Wall (1914), but McLean, Virginia-based media conglomerate Gannett Co. believes the 80 paywalls it plans to erect by the end of 2012 for the online editions of the 80 community newspapers it owns will make annual subscription revenues climb 25 percent.

Forbes Magazine reported yesterday that Gannett's Robert Dickey, president of community publishing, said a metered payment system will be in place for Gannett newspapers that likely will offer from five to 15 free articles monthly before Website visitors have to pay for content. Presently, six Gannett dailies have digital paywalls in place (see "TUOL" post 7/1/10).

The Forbes article noted that Gannett's leaky flagship, USA Today, will not follow the paywall route of its sister publications for now, as the nationwide paper is in the throes of upgrading and making over its Website.

Journal Sentinel Online Metered Paywall: The Tier that Made Milwaukee Pay Us?

Image via WikipediaBeginning January 4, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JSOnline.com) will introduce a paywall requiring online readers to pony up once they exceed their 20-free-article limit, the paper announced today.

Digital-only access subscribers will pay $2.35 a week in monthly, semi-annual or annual installments. Readers who subscribe to the print edition will have free access to the electronic version. Subscribers to the Sunday-only print edition can pocket an extra nickel by paying $2.30 a week while enjoying full access to the digital version.

The daily is calling its digital version  JS Everywhere, which should help those who sometimes confuse journalism with creative writing. Sports results, section indices, classified ads, home page, videos and the TapMilwaukee channel offerings on JSOnline.com will remain free to all online visitors, the paper announced.

Lee Online Dailies in Montana & Wyoming Erect Paywalls

Image via WikipediaDavenport, Iowa-based media conglomerate Lee Enterprises has erected paywalls for six online dailies among its holdings in Montana and Wyoming, PaidContent.org reports.

Lee, which owns roughly 50 daily newspapers nationwide, has established metered payment models for online versions of The Billings Gazette, Helena Independent Record, The Missoulian, The Ravalli Republic, The Casper Star Tribune and The Montana Standard, the PaidContent article said.  The number of free views offered before visitors are asked to purchase a digital subscription and the always-free online sections varies depending on the publication.

The Billings (Mont.) Gazette, which boasts roughly 38,400 print subscribers, allows 20 articles to be viewed a month digitally before inviting print edition subscribers to pay $1.95 a month or $19.50 annually and non-subscribers $6.95 a month or $69.50 a year. In contrast, the 13,000 print circulation Helena Independent Record charges kick-in after 15 online articles and impose a subscription rate of $1.99 a month/$19.99 yearly for print subscribers and $4.99 a month/$49.99 annually for nonsubscribers.

A discouraging word may seldom be heard on the range in Montana, but if it's going to be read online, residents are going to have to pay to see it.

McClatchy's Metered Modesto

Image via WikipediaThe Modesto (Calif.) Bee last week became the first newspaper of  The McClatchy Company media conglomerate to erect a paywall for its online edition, according to News & Tech.com.

Bee Publisher Eric Johnston said online visitors may access 20 articles gratis before being asked to cough up $5 a month or $50 annually for continued access. Subscribers to the print edition have unlimited free access to the daily's digital version.

Montreal Gazette Erects Paywall for Online Edition

Image via WikipediaThe Montreal Gazette, which claims its online edition attracts a million unique North American visitors monthly, has announced that it is implementing a  metered payment system (or for those, like the "TUOL" staff who mastered high school French--paiement mesuree) similar to The New York Times.

Gazette online visitors will get 20 free views of premium content monthly before the paywall kicks in.  Non-subscribers to the print version of the paper will be asked to fork over $69.95 a year or $6.95 a month. Those who receive the paper edition receive free access after entering identifying information.  Hockeyinsideout.com and westislandgazette.com will not be subject to metering, because the Montreal Gazette knows better than to try to get in the way of online Canadian hockey fans looking for puck news gratis.

Montrealgazette.com boasts that it received 11 million page views last month. Whether online visitors are willing to part with their hard-earned Canadian Dollars remains to be seen.

Canadians Turn A Cold Shoulder to Newspaper Paywalls

Image via WikipediaWith The New York Times and the Tulsa World among the most recent U.S. newspapers to begin charging visitors to view their online content, a survey by the University of British Columbia ("UBC") reveals that Canadians have little appetite for paywalls.

Roughly 1,700 Canadian adults were polled online, according to UBC Graduate School of Journalism emerita Prof. Donna Logan, lead author of  the study entitled Canadian Consumers Unwilling to Pay for News Online (catchy name, eh?). A whopping 81 percent of those surveyed said they would not pay to read news online, with 90 percent claiming they would seek free alternatives if their preferred online news site implemented a paywall. Factors, such as age, education level, and rural/urban residents, had little impact on the poll results.

Only 30 percent of those surveyed said they would consider paying for online content if no free alternative news sites were available.  Among those willing to part with their hard-earned Canadian dollars, flat-fee subscriptions were preferred over metered payment and pay-as-you-go models.

Worcester Daily Meter Is Running

Image via WikipediaThe New York Times reports that the online edition of its sister publication, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette next week will launch a metered paywall system.

Although subscribers to the print edition will continue to have free access to online content, others will be allotted 10 free local articles a month before a subscription fee kicks in.  Online readers can opt for a $1 day pass or a $14.95 monthly subscription for complete access to online local news content.
The New York Times plans to unveil its own metered paywall system for its online edition early next year.

Death Be Not Free: PA Readers to Pay 'Obit o' Money"

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LancasterOnline, which serves readers of the Pa. daily Intelligencer Journal Lancaster New Era, is the first outlet to flip the switch on the Steve Brill-backed Journalism Online paid content system.

After seven "free views" monthly of LancasterOnline's online obituary pages, non-Lancaster County readers will have to dole out $1.99 a month or $19.99 annually to find out which Pennsylvanians have gone from the Keystone State to a headstone state so to speak.  The editor of LancasterOnline anticipates as many as 100,000 readers outside of the area are visiting the obit pages annually, which could mean $100,000 to $500,000 in additional revenues, depending on the subscription rate.

New Yorkers, and residents of Harrisburg and Philadelphia constitute the largest percentage of out-of-area visitors to the website, according to the editor. The Lancaster daily boasts a Sunday readership of 95,000 and daily circulation of roughly 81,000. Subscribers of the print edition or of the e-edition of the Lancaster paper won't have to pay to peruse the online obits.

NH Papers: Don't Take Free Online Content for Granite

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Count The Concord Monitor, The Portsmouth Herald, The Nashua Telegraph and The Conway Daily Sun among Granite State newspapers that will institute metered payment systems for online news content before the year is out.

Access to breaking news will remain free and unrestricted, but online readers otherwise will have a ceiling on free page views monthly before being required to register on the Web site and pay for additional viewings. The Dow Jones-owned Seacoast Media Group, which publishes The Portsmouth Herald, is expected to unveil its metered payment program sometime this fall.

Full Disclosure:  New Hampshire newspapers are near and dear to the intrepid "TUOL" staff, which more years ago than will be admitted to, worked as a reporter at The N.H. Union-Leader. The Union-Leader, which does not publish all its stories online, is not listed among the papers going the metered payment route, opting to dip its toes in the 20th Century, before rushing into the 21st.