Lots has been written lately about the need for newspapers to charge for online access just so they can offset the huge decline in subscriptions to their print editions.
Big players like The New York Times have tried and failed in the past and only some like The Wall Street Journal have succeeded in charging for online content.
Now Editor & Publisher reports that 176 dailies have taken the first step and signed up with Journalism Online to begin the process of charging for online access. They don’t discuss what the papers will charge and say that this is just the first step and they have no idea how many will actually go through with it but it indicates that our lives may be about to change.
The people from Journalism Online think the model that didn’t work for The New York Times will work today. That is, provide most of your content for free and charge avid readers for premium content. I’m not so sure about that.
First, The New York Times primarily tried to charge for their famous editorial content. The political blogosphere revolted by not commenting on any of the premium editorials so the writers’ audience dwindled and The New York Times relented. Secondly, the smaller dailies don’t have anything particularly special to sell, most local editorials just aren’t worth reading.
I actually think the smaller papers would have a better chance if they charged for everything, all or nothing online. They generally cover the local market much better than local TV and radio stations so they don’t have much competition.
This is going to be fun to watch but more importantly what happens will have a dramatic effect on local advertising.
Stay tuned, but in the meantime keep going toward digital and the Internet.