Prelude: I worked for the company for two years as a web editor before being laid off in October
When the Sun-Times announced their ‘metered pay plan’ Tuesday afternoon, I had about the same reaction as everyone else: WTF?
First the quick ‘n dirty facts. Visitors will be able to read 20 free articles a month before they hit the paywall (affectionately stolen borrowed from the New York Times paywall model). Beyond that, digital subscriptions will cost $1.99 a month for those who already subscribe to the print edition and $6.99 a month for digital-only customers.
Note the language here; customers, not readers. Sun-Times’ choice of phrasing, not mine.
This is a risky, but (probably) calculated move following other newspapers that found mixed success.
Just this morning, the Minnesota Star Tribune revealed some numbers about their paywall that was launched this past fall. While the numbers were undoubtably crunched a dozen times over for the best possible spin, it shows that the paywall is (probably) not a complete failure. As described by Poynter:
The Star Tribune tells David Brauer how its paywall is doing a month after launch. Ad revenue will suffer from lower traffic, which is down 10 to 15 percent, depending on the metric. But the newspaper has 5,900 new digital subscribers, 1,150 of whom are now getting the Sunday newspaper, too. And more people are paying a bit extra to bundle digital access with their print subscriptions. “So in four weeks, the Strib has potentially reaped about $800,000 in new digital circulation revenue,” Brauer writes.
Of course, there is the New York Times’ implementation last March. The big daddy, the grand poobah of newspaper paywalls. It revealed itself to be relatively easy to bypass for those ‘in the know’ about technology. How’s that working for them? They now boast 324,000 digital subscribers. Obviously there is a hefty gap in both quantity and quality between the NYT and the Sun-Times.
There are reasons to think the Sun-Times’ paywall might succeed (which I define as not being a horrible failure) but there are just as many to assume the worst. There has been a steady decline in reporters and copyeditors for years, supplanted by AP copy. It’s become an assumed inevitability that online readership drops off after a paywall and along with it, ad revenue. It’s a very careful line to walk, the difference between ad revenue lost and digital subscribers gained.
The Sun-Times has given itself a clear target to reach. Probably not a smart move, all things considered.
He [Company chairman Jeremy Halbreich] also said other metro papers that have tried metered systems have seen temporary declines in their web traffic, but that activity generally picks up after about three months.
I guess we’ll have to check back in three months and see where they are at.
There are plenty of people who will bite their thumb at the paywall. “The Sun-Times? I would NEVER pay for that rag!” You probably weren’t already, and this move isn’t really targeting you. Like the NYT model, the 20 free articles gives plenty of leeway for the occasional visitor. I visit the Sun-Times every day as a part of my regulars ‘news outlet tour’ but I’m not sure I click 20 articles a month. And of course, therein lies the problem.
Chicago is a big market. Between the Chicago Tribune, WGN, Huffington Post Chicago, Chicago Reader, the Redeye, the Chicago News Cooperative, Chicago Public Media and the flock of broadcast news sites, we aren’t exactly short on news sources.
It’s too early in the process to say if this will work, fail, or fall into the nebulous ambiguity that has plagued the Sun-Times for years. The notions of paywalls are still young enough that no one can say for sure how it will pan out.
Maybe they’ll see good-to-great successes and start to actually grow. Or maybe
No matter what happens, it should be an interesting ride.
Afterthought: Then again, there is a healthy portion of openly racist, blatant hateful angry people who troll the Sun-Times comments sections who will (if their ideology is as strong as their vitriol) no doubt gladly stop accepting handouts from the Sun-Times. Maybe that was the marketing plan behind all this? That or boobs.
By the way, I’m looking for work. Investigate my LinkedIn profile or find me on Twitter.
