New Approaches to Paid Digital Content

Reuters Institute reporting:
Richard E, Picard:
There is a growing impetus toward paid digital content in print news providers. Many newspapers are now starting to follow early movers into paid services, with the Sun and Telegraph in UK following the path of the Financial Times and Times. In Germany, Bild became the first large-scale tabloid to require payment, and the majority of large dailies in Canada and Australia now require payments for digital access. News and public affairs magazines are taking a mixed approach, with some pursuing paid strategies and others trying more open ones. News organisations that employ collaborative, networked strategies relying on significant contributions from experts and the public are tending to pursue open or mixed-access approaches.
These differing approaches are representative of distinctive shifts in thinking about digital strategies and a growing sophistication of strategy involving news content.

New strategies for paid content

Four major strategic approaches to the question whether or not consumers should pay have emerged: (1) open sites for which consumers do not pay for access (although many sites have been free for the past two decades, the movement towards paid content is changing this from a default strategy to a deliberate choice designed to serve specific strategic functions), (2) a mixed approach, with some content available without payment and some paid, (3) a soft paywall requiring paid access, but with ability to share stories and limited access for search engines and links, and (4) a hard paywall necessitating paid access but without the ability to share and denial of access for search engines and linkages.
The questions of which approach to use are multifaceted and differential access pricing models are proliferating. Underlying this trend is increasing acceptance of view that the digital platforms provide different value and need to be conceived as different products. Differences in visual and presentational styles, storytelling, and experience are producing varying pay approaches as consumers show a greater willingness to pay for tablet and smartphone news content.
BILDplus, for example, offers three different price packages providing access via web, smartphone, and tablet apps for €4.99 monthly, web, smartphone, tablet apps, and epaper editions for €9.99 monthly, and BILDplus Komplett for €14.99 monthly that includes web, smartphone, tablet apps, epaper editions, and the printed paper.
Elsewhere, digital channels are also being used to offer special content apps and editions. In Spain, El Mundo has introduced an evening app edition and a daily gossip app. O Globo and O Estado de S. Paulo in Brazil have also created special new evening products for tablets and mobiles.
A major emerging strategy is the acquisition of video rights to help drive acceptance of paid tablet and smartphone services. The general press are producing more distinctive video content using their own journalists as well as offering news clips, while tabloids have focused their attention on sports and soap opera highlights.
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/essays/2014/new-approaches-to-paid-digital-content/