For more than a decade, news publishers and magazines have searched for
the quintessential strategy to transition non-paying readers into paying
subscribers. The road has been fraught with missteps, disasters and strategy
reversals.
Hard paywalls cut off as much as 95 percent of traffic to websites,
rendering them unread and unattractive to advertisers. Soft paywalls may not result in enough
revenue to be worthwhile. The majority of readers vowed never to pay for
content.
However, the experimentation is paying off, and many media companies
around the world are finally getting traction by implementing their paywall
strategies, be they hard, soft, hybrid or membership models. At some media
companies, such as the Financial Times, digital subscriptions now exceed that
of the newspaper.
According to a growing number of studies, including
PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2014, and Reuters
Institute’s Digital News Report 2014, the present and future of paid content is
looking positive.
World Newsmedia Network has
published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014
trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media
usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free
executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org
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