The viability of paid-for content will be the focus of this year’s World Electronic Publishing Conference to be held in Barcelona next month.
“Beyond The Printed Word” is organised by the publishing technology association IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the magazine publishers association FIPP. The conference, which will take place on 17 and 18 October, is to study the latest online publishing stats and assess revenue opportunities for media owners.
“The internet is a clear success in terms of traffic, particularly for newspaper sites, but it has generally not yet met expectations from a profit perspective,” said Timothy Balding, Director General of the Paris-based WAN. “More and more publishers are unwilling to subsidise online operations indefinitely. The search for profit has become a critical issue.”
The high profile Wall Street Journal has succeeded in maintaining a subscription-only model and both the Times and Financial Times are now charging for selected content. Online newspapers are becoming increasing popular in the European online market (see Newspaper Sites Attract Upmarket Readers, Says Forrester) but analysts remain sceptical as to whether users would be willing to access these sites if fees were applied (see Insight Analysis: Can There Really Be A Free Lunch At The ‘Cyber-Buffet’?).
