Paywalls were supposed to help rescue newspapers from the crisis of sinking print circulation as readers shifted to getting their news online.
But with a few exceptions, they have failed to deliver much relief, prompting some news organizations to rethink their digital strategies.
Newspapers in the English-speaking world ended paywalls some 69 times through May 2015, including 41 temporary and 28 permanent drops, according to a study by University of Southern California researchers.
Paywalls “generate only a small fraction of industry revenue,” with estimates ranging from one percent in the United States to 10 percent internationally, the study in July’s International Journal of Communication said.
“People are far less willing to pay for online news than for print,” said USC journalism professor Mike Ananny, an author of the study.
Newspapers are in a difficult spot, he added, because online advertising generates a fraction of print’s revenue, and news organizations are already pressured by falling print circulation.
Alan Mutter, a former Chicago and San Francisco newspaper editor who now consults for media organizations, said the research confirms that paywalls have value in relatively rare circumstances.
Free News
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have been relatively successful with paywalls because of their unique content, he said.
“It’s hard for a general-interest website to charge for news that you can get for free with a few clicks.”
Paywalls can backfire also “because they put a barrier between the newspaper and the casual reader,” he added.
“They are truncating the size of the digital market, when the most important factor for digital is scale.”
A survey this year by the American Press Institute showed 77 of the 98 US newspapers with circulations above 50,000 used some type of online subscription, which could be a “hard” paywall that fences off all content or allows some free.
But a number of English-language news organizations have dropped their paywalls in recent months, including the Toronto Star, and British dailies The Independent and The Sun.
Among US dailies, the San Francisco Chronicle dropped its paywall in 2013. The Dallas Morning News did the same in 2014 before reinstituting a “metered” system allowing up to 10 free articles.
Newsweek lifted its paywall for most content in February, limiting the number of free magazine features for nonsubscribers.
A study this year by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found only 10 percent of readers in English-speaking countries were willing to pay for digital news.
