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What is a pay wall ?

What is a pay wall ?. It is a system that prevents Internet users from accessing webpage content (especially news content and scholarly publications) without a paid subscription. History. Different types of pay wall. 1)HARD 2) SOFT 3)COMBINATION. HARD PAY WALL.

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What is a pay wall ?

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  1. What is a pay wall ? It is a system that prevents Internet users from accessing webpage content (especially news content and scholarly publications) without a paid subscription. History

  2. Different types of pay wall 1)HARD 2) SOFT 3)COMBINATION

  3. HARD PAY WALL • Requires paid subscription before any online content can be accessed. • News sites with “hard” paywall succeed if they:- • A French analyst estimated that a website would lose 90% of its online audience and ad revenue. • Provide added value to their content • Target a specific audience • Already dominate their own market

  4. Soft pay walls • Are embodied by the metered model. • They allow access to select content outside of the pay wall. • As long as the user has not surpassed the set limit. Examples. • Financial Times allows access to 10 articles • The New York Times allows access to 20, but since April 2012, it allows 10 free articles

  5. Combination pay walls • Combination pay wall strategy includes allowing free access to select content, while keeping premium content behind a pay wall. • Content by junior staff its free. • Noble content its behind a pay wall.

  6. Example of newspapers with Paywall • The NYT and London Times are among successful papers, with an estimated 100 000 and 80 000 readers respectively by mid-2011 (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-23/murdoch-s-leap-finds-converts-in-cannes-as-paywall-users-grow.html • The WSJ and FT also have successful sites with paywalls, presumably because they service niche markets. • The Natal Witness was the first to do it in November 2009 • The Daily Dispatch and the PE Herald went the same route in 2010. • A senior source at the DD told us that before PW, they used to run Dispatch Online from EL and had around 120 000 unique users a month, had over 1-million page impressions a month • They were regarded “as a model of how a converged newsroom should look like” . “Anyway, our site is now as good as dead. We are re-launching it though soon,” said the journalist.

  7. The Sunday Times’ paywall • On Sunday, the 17th of June 2012, the Sunday Times became the latest local news site to launch its own PW. When we clicked on its website on Sunday we got a message that says “good journalism comes at a price”. • Upon inquiry, Avusa Live general Manager Derek Abdinor said ST content was no longer available on the site and that they were now offering “the iPad app and an e-edition”. • He said one would require two subscriptions to access both the paper and its web edition, but said: “We are planning to bundle print and online subscriptions, but that is a large enterprise to synchronize the two (sic)” • Abdinor also told The Media Online what they were doing was not a “paywall” but rather a “content block’. • Mixed response from ST readers: “We’ve had mixed responses – some readers were annoyed that they could not get free content, others wanted to know more about how to use their e-editions,” says Abdinor.

  8. Reasons why Newspaper erect Paywall • Natal Witness: When newspapers are starved of revenue they can’t afford to give away news (Natal Witness). It is necessary for readers to pay to keep information flowing. (http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=30451) • Dispatch and Herald : A lot of online readers resided outside the Eastern Cape , and the idea was to convert them into paying subscribers for online content. • Some people are prepared to pay for content • Newsrooms will be encouraged to improve the quality of their online content. • NewsCorp Australia: The papers are losing money and only exist because of subsidies from other parts of the organisation

  9. Anti-paywall • Arianna Huffington: We must find other models of generating revenue, protecting information doesn’t work because we are no longer living in the old content economy, we live in linked economy. • Hufington: The future is in online journalism and foundation-supported investigative journalism (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/11/newspapers-web-media-pay-wall?INTCMP=SRCH) • Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger: Will remove the industry from the digital revolution which allows engagement with readers and will lead the industry “into a sleepwalk into oblivion” (video : http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/25/guardian-editor-paywalls). • Readers simply migrate to free sites • Newspapers are supposed to try and influence as many people as possible CELLPHONE

  10. Will it work? • The debate rages on on the internet. • Perhaps specialist web publications can survive with a paywall • So far it has not worked in South African news sites: e.g. The Daily Dispatch and the PE Herald. • A lot of what is happening is experimental and the jury is still out.

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