Newspaper’s paywall proves a success

A local newspaper from the American town of Newport, Rhode Island, could prove to be a guiding light for companies wanting to put their online content behind paywalls.

This summer saw the Newport Daily News begin charging a $345 subscription fee for its online news – $200 more than for the print edition, reports Newsweek.

After the paywall was erected, cancellations of subscriptions to the print edition fell as readers could no longer access the same news online for free. Even better for the paper, newsstand sales have increased by 200 copies a day.

Most of the recent news stories about paying for online content have focused on Rupert Murdoch’s decision to charge for access to News Corp’s newspaper sites. At MediaTel Group’s recent ‘Future of National Newspapers’ seminar, News International’s MD of commercial, Paul Hayes, was adamant that newspapers can replicate the success of Sky and get people to pay for compelling content.

“People will pay for quality content. Otherwise our business has no future,” he said, going on to describe the traditional newspaper model as broken.

However, at the weekend’s MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, former Endemol chairman Peter Bazalgette said that News Corp papers the Sun and Times are unlikely to make much money charging for access when similar content is available for free elsewhere.

He said that people are willing to pay for the sort of unique content in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal or for online titles with a monopoly, like a newspaper serving a local community – something the success of the Newport Daily News seems to support.

And, not content with its success so far, the paper is also looking to maximise profit from its website, NewportDailyNews.com, by targeting subscribers to the print edition who have it posted to their homes and persuading them to switch to the online version at a reduced rate, thus cutting the delivery costs involved.