Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Scandinavian media hit by paywall craze

journalism.co.uk reporting:
Would you pay to read your local newspaper online?
An increasing number of Norwegian locals are gambling the answer to that question is yes.
Try reading a small local newspaper such as Hallingdölen , or a regional such Faedrelandsvennen, online and you will hit the paywall for most articles, save those on major news events, the traffic or those originating from newswires. At Norwegian local Möre-Nytt you have to pay if you want to read more than five articles.
Other local newspapers, such as several of those owned by Edda Media, a group in the process of being acquired by A-pressen from Mecom, are introducing so-called "plus models", where readers have to pay to access the "plus" area, which typically offers more features and in-depth articles, of the paper’s digital offering.
This is a model which Schibsted-owned tabloid Aftonbladet has been very successful with in Sweden. Aftonbladet however, is a national which boasts around 2.5 million readers on average each day. How come local newspapers have the audacity to attempt introducing a model pioneered by a market leader?...
In Denmark, it is the nationals who currently are leading the charge to introduce new payment models. Politiken.dk, has announced it will introduce a "soft" paywall, inspired by The New York Times, towards the end of this year.
Another Danish national, Jyllands-Posten (JP.dk) has said it is looking to introduce a payment model inspired by Le Monde’s more "plus-like" model where a lot of content is available for free online, but readers have to pay to access certain unique content.
Mecom-owned Berlingske, who owns national newspaper Berlingske Tidende, has experimented with various forms of user payment, and its national is also expected to launch a new digital payment model online this year.
"Newspapers in general have a weak position in Denmark", said Henrik Schultz, a Danish media analyst at Sparebanken1 Markets.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/scandinavian-media-hit-by-pay-wall-craze/s2/a549824/

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