[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #462: Walls tumbling down?

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OPLIN 4cast #462: Walls tumbling down?
November 4th, 2015

[image: broken wall] News UK, which publishes *The Sun*, the UK's
biggest-selling tabloid, decided at the end of last week to get rid of the
paywall on their online news site by the end of this month and rely instead
on advertising for revenue. That doesn't necessarily signal the beginning
of a trend, and in fact may be moving in the opposite direction from most
other publishers. Paywalls have had mixed results in the past few years.
Metered paywalls that restrict the number of free articles an Internet user
can see are pretty easy to circumvent with browser settings. A premium
paywall that charges for premium content takes a bit more effort to get
around, but it is by no means impossible. Scholarly publishers seem to have
the most secure paywalls because they can expose summary content in an
openly-available abstract, but viewing the complete article requires a
purchase.

   - Can dropping the paywall and upping the story count boost Sun's
   website?
   <http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2015/nov/01/sun-website-paywall-rebekah-brooks-tony-gallagher>
   (The Guardian | Roy Greenslade) "In commercial terms, News UK will be
   hoping that a larger Sun online audience will result in increased digital
   revenues from advertising. The signs are not promising just now because the
   once seemingly irresistible rise in online advertising for newspaper
   websites has slowed in the face of competition from the US-based digital
   giants Google and Facebook."
   - Stats: How social media brought down The Sun paywall
   <https://econsultancy.com/blog/67128-stats-how-social-media-brought-down-the-sun-paywall/>
   (Econsultancy | Ben Davis) "Research by eMarketer in December 2014
   estimated that in 2015 Google and Facebook will take 50.8% of the total UK
   digital advertising revenue (>£1bn). This is another stat that shows
   publishers need to be wary of relying solely on advertising revenue, when
   advertisers are so heavily invested in the major tech platforms."
   - Is the New York Times paywall a success? What can it teach other
   publishers?
   <http://www.fipp.com/news/opinion/is-the-new-york-times-paywall-a-success-what-can-it-teach-publishers>
   (Fipp | Ashley Norris) "There is one overwhelming reason why the NYT has
   been able to make a success of its paywall, and that is its commitment to
   quality journalism. In an age where news is commoditised and stories are
   shared via social media in seconds, the quality and depth of the NYT's
   reporting and analysis really are second to none."
   - If you need a paywall, but you also need Google to love you, you have
   a problem
   <https://thestack.com/world/2015/10/15/why-paywalls-have-to-be-so-fragile/>
   (The Stack | Martin Anderson) "The Wall Street Journal's paywall,
   forbidding as it may seem, is far from a decisive block to the
   non-subscriber, who in fact needs absolutely no software at all to skirt
   around it. It's enough to copy the headline of the article that you want to
   read... paste the headline into Google and follow the inevitable link to
   the article, which will now be displayed without any obfuscation. Major
   digital publishers, all of whom are going to want good placement also as
   sources for Google News, cannot afford to send search engine spiders to
   content-free pages intended to rope in new subscribers, and so if the
   referrer for the page request is 'Google', you're escorted promptly past
   all the bouncers."

*Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - Beyond the paywall: Future valuation of news.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=96976236&site=ehost-live>
   (*Editor & Publisher*, July 2014, p.46-51 | Gretchen A. Peck)
   - The next generation of subscription programs.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=102384957&site=ehost-live>
   (*Editor & Publisher*, May 2015, p.44-49 | Adreana Young)
   - A brief history of paywalls.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=102384958&site=ehost-live>
   (*Editor & Publisher*, May 2015, p.48)

------------------------------
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