Shorenstein-newspay-langeveld

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Martin Langveld, of CircLabs comments:

"The real paywall is going up around print with more papers upping single copy and subscription rates, plus cutting their perennial discounting of subscriptions. Also the metros have upped geographical tiers - the Globe in Brattleboro, Vt. here went from $2.50 to $4.00 on Sunday in the summer.

"Which is all fine - print is now a niche, and people who want it should pay for their preference. This means any "protect print by charging online" strategy is bogus; online should never have a "paywall". The only online pricing ideas that make sense are (a) charges for truly unique niche content, and (b) variable pricing plans like Albert Sun's suggestion, in which there's a range of premium-priced packages with enhanced access and content features (while the vast majority of content remains free to the vast majority of readers).

"The other things are: (a) online news needs reinvention in a way that vastly improves engagement (time spent), and (b) news/information publishers have the oppty to increase their ad rates in a major way through preference-oriented advertising, which is where Circulate comes in, of course."