Mr. Publisher: Tear Down That Paywall!
All of us who work in the marketing field understand the irony of working in a profession where, by day, we seek to position our client's brand and message in front of as many eyeballs as possible. However, by night, we aim to personally avoid as many of those messages as possible through DVR, satellite radio and the like.
Imagine my anger when a TV show I attempted to watch the other night through Comcast On Demand didn't allow me to fast forward through commercials! Wasn't I allowed to skip the commercials last year? What happened? Who did this to us?
I know. What a hypocrite, right?
Now, here's the latest in my internal struggle as a marketer and consumer: subscription-based online media.
In recent months, more and more daily media outlets are going toward a fee-based subscription model for access to content. Often times, this takes the form of a paywall, where online publications offer a set amount of articles to site visitors for free – usually between 10 and 20 articles a month – before blocking access and forcing the consumer to set up a paid subscription for continued access to content.
Once again, my initial reaction was that, yet again, "the man" is sticking it to us. Yes, even a 44-year-old business professional with a family and mortgage can sometimes feel like a 17-year-old high school drop-out ... at least for a little while.
Once the pain of knowing that I could no longer read every article about my Purdue Boilermakers without financial consequences subsided, I came to my senses. Fifteen years ago, if I wanted daily news on Purdue football and basketball, I'd have needed to purchase a subscription to the Lafayette Journal & Courier print issues. So, why should I object to having to pay for it now – especially when I know that, if I'm smart, I can still read the really important articles for free? I just have to be more selective.
The problem is that it's hard to get the genie back in the bottle. For more than a decade, all consumers have enjoyed virtually unlimited access to most online daily publications. For the younger demographic, it's all they have ever known. So they have to be really outraged.
But guess what? We all need to get used to it. According to a May 3 article published by Reuters, if you do frequent a daily news website that doesn't limit free consumption, you better enjoy it while you can.
"2012 is going to become the year when it becomes the exception for publishers to have fully free websites," said L. Gordon Crovitz, co-founder of Press+, a company that helps newspapers charge for content online.
The Reuters article also claims that, by the end of 2012, 20 to 25 percent of percent of daily newspapers will have erected some form of paywall according to Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst for Outsell and the author of "Newsonomics."
The article went on to say that, after years of struggling circulation numbers due to a decline in print, newspapers across the country showed modest circulation gains in the last six months based largely on the increasing popularity of digital subscription plans. This, according to a report published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
And I say, good for them. Since I was a kid, I've enjoyed turning to newspapers – and their online versions in the last decade – for news and perspectives brought to me by trained and talented journalists. If I want that to continue, I need to understand that I need to play a part in continuing to keep them employed. While advertising support can go a long way in financially carrying news operations, it's clear that they are missing huge opportunities for additional revenue by failing to seize online subscription opportunities.
So the next time I come to a consumer crossroads as to if I should fork over $10 a month for unlimited access to my favorite online resources, or, God forbid, have to sit through an On Demand commercial break, I know that deep down, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson, "I want them on that paywall ... I need them on that paywall".
And you should too.
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