From the Charlotte Observer: McClatchy Co. announced Friday that metered pay walls will be
installed at the company’s newspaper websites, including
CharlotteObserver.com.
While McClatchy did not disclose specifics of the plan, which
will begin late this year, the company said users would be allowed a
number of free page views per month before being required to pay a
subscription fee. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/27/3410429/mcclatchy-to-end-unlimited-access.html
There have been many newspapers in the last few months that have decided to limit access to their web sites. Newspapers are losing revenue because of the web sites. Newspapers are losing revenue because of falling number of newspaper subscriptions. The problem is that when the newspapers come out the news is often 2 hours old or more and the news have been on their web site within an hour or less of the news occurring.
The problem you have with web sites of the newspapers is that they don't bring in many advertising dollars. So, many newspapers are trying to get people to subscribe to their paper and if you do, then you can access their web site for free.
So far, while I have run into some problems with some newspapers and their web page limits, I am usually able to get around it.
I don't know if this will work for the newspapers. Newspapers need income to pay for their employees but will this increase their number of subscriptions? I think the money raised will be minimal and in doing so, it will reduce the number of page views, which will reduce their income from the web.
But many newspapers can increase the number of subscriptions if they were not so liberal and had a liberal bias in their articles. But most newspapers would rather push their agenda down people's throats than make money for their employers.
So, we will see if this is a fad that goes away in a short time or the new revenue source for the newspapers.
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