The newsonomics of Piano Media

Niemanlabs reporting:
At least 150 paywalls have been erected over the last year or so, in the U.S., U.K., and across Europe. American companies in on that construction boom include Lee, McClatchy, Morris, MediaGeneral, MediaNews, Gatehouse, and Tribune (all powered by Press+), as well as Scripps, Gannett, and Belo. From Sanoma in Finland to The Telegraph in the U.K., a number of dailies are following the trend. Those that haven’t are almost all considering a paywall in some form; many more will launch in the next 12 months.
TFacebook’s new design, of course, emphasizes media, so look for its Media Center to include subscription-selling, too, at some point. With Yahoo Livestand and and Google’s Propeller set to launch soon, joining AOL’s Editions, these tablet news aggregation products offer another natural home for subscription sales, though we don’t know how many of them are making that connection at this point.
At this newsstand inflection point, it’s worth taking a longer look at one little newsstand that has been in business for a long time — since May! — and see what we can learn from its experience.
That newsstand is Piano Media, the little 300,000-euro-funded, 10-person start-up, in Slovakia.
Slovakia? Yes, the small (5 million people) country in middle Europe has done what many other nations have only thought about. Piano has gotten almost all of Slovakia’s major publishers and one TV station to work together, agree on a common paywall, and split revenue. That’s been a goal of American publishers since the lost, mid-’90s days of New Century Network.
...For Piano Media, it gains that awareness through a thin, top bar appearing across its nine member websites. (That bar is much like CircLabs has touted in its “Circulate” concept.) Click on that banner and you get this offer: “For a single monthly payment, you can get shared access to premium content on 9 different websites.” Your choices: €0.99 for a day, €2.90 for a month, or €29 for a year. (Is “nine, nine, nine” spreading?) Sign in and get access to all: one price, one login recognized persistently by all member sites. Most buyers opt for the monthly deal.
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