Media Revenue Drives Paywall Popularity According to new Paywall Data Report

Dec. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- A paywall is a system that prevents Internet users from accessing webpage content without a paid subscription.  While paywalls are used to bring in extra revenue for companies by charging for online content, they have also been used to increase the number of print subscribers. Some newspapers offer access to online content, including delivery of a Sunday print edition at a lower price than online access alone. News sites use this tactic because it increases both their online revenue and their print circulation.

Jeff Inglis reported last week in the Portland Phoenix that The Lewiston Sun Journal’s online paywall launched last week, and nobody really noticed. It’s a new experiment in both structure and sales-pitch for converting formerly non-paying web readers into customers with open wallets.  Inglis reported that many papers around the country (as big as the New York Times and as small as the Ellsworth American) have variations on paywalls, and more are likely coming; the Press Herald’s parent company has said it’s planning one too.

Radio streaming is about to becoming very profitable. The revenue model is moving toward paid content and more than fifty percent of all media outlets will utilize a paywall by 2015.  In the next six months hundreds of radio stations will bring their on-air and online commercial content together to avoid being listed separately in the ratings. A new Arbitron policy went into effect that combines the data as long as both the on-air and streaming content are a 100% simulcast in the home market of the station.   The streaming broadcasts are not money-makers without a paywall.  Radio stations can immediately turn out of market listeners into profit centers.  Swishu, based in New York City, is poised to capture the majority of the print and radio market due to a low entry cost.

The first paywall data report is being assembled and distributed by TR Cutler, Inc.  Requests for the report made before January 31, 2014 will be sent free of charge upon publication.  To receive the Paywall Data Report register at: http://trcutlerinc.com/paywall-data-report.php.

Thomas R. Cutler is the President & CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based, TR Cutler, Inc., (www.trcutlerinc.com).  Cutler is the founder of the Manufacturing Media Consortium including more than 5000 journalists, editors, and economists writing about trends in manufacturing, industry, material handling, and process improvement. Cutler is the most published freelance industrial journalist worldwide; Follow Thomas R Cutler on Twitter @ThomasRCutler.

TR Cutler, Inc.

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Thomas R. Cutler

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