MediaNews Group announces paywalls for 23 newspapers in the U.S.
By Andrew Moran (Guest Contributor/Digital Journalist)
Paywalls are continuing to make their way to American media outlets. MediaNews Group recently announced that its adding the paywall structure to 23 American newspapers across the country, including Lebanon Daily News and Public Opinion.
The future of media has been in question for a longtime now. Since Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and the New York Times began to implement paywalls, other news outlets are experimenting with that type of system as well.
MediaNews Group is the latest news outlet to add a paywall to its arsenal. The group announced this week that it will offer subscriptions for its online content to both print subscribers and non-subscribers to 23 newspapers in the United States.
Readers will be given five pages of editorial content for free each month. The newspapers’ home pages, announcements, classified ads and obituaries will remain free for visitors.
Once they have exceeded that amount, they will then be asked to subscribe to view more content. Print subscribers would pay $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year. Non-print subscribers will pay $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year.
It has been confirmed that there are currently no plans to expand the paywalls beyond the five states.
“The decision to begin charging for our online content introduces a new era for our organization that is reflective of the high value we place on journalistic excellence and serving the community,” said William Dean Singleton, chairman of MediaNews Group and publisher of the Denver Post, in an interview.
“Implementation of online subscriptions will allow us to continue to support the quality writing and reporting that our readers expect from us.”The newspapers affected by the paywalls are listed below:
California
Daily Democrat, Lake County Record-Bee, Red Bluff Daily News, Redlands Daily Facts, The Reporter, Times-Herald, Times-Standard, The Ukiah Daily Journal and Whittier Daily News.
Massachusetts
North Adams Transcript and Sentinel & Enterprise
New Mexico
Alamogordo Daily News, The Carlsbad Current-Argus, Daily Times, Deming Headlight, Las Cruces Sun-News, Ruidoso News and Silver City Sun-News.
Pennsylvania
Evening Sun, Lebanon Daily News and Public Opinion.
Vermont
Bennington Banner and Brattleboro Reformer.
This article was originally published on Digital Journal [Link]
Google gets in the subscription game, announces ‘One Pass’ for publishers
By Chris Hogg
In a blog post today, Google announced it is rolling out Google One Pass, a subscription service designed to let publishers set prices to access digital content.
Google One Pass offers publishers a variety of subscription options, including auto-renewing subscriptions, day passes, metered access, pay-per-article or multi-issue packages.
Using a single sign-on, a reader can access content on multiple platforms, including Web and mobile, without having to subscribe to multiple feeds. It’s a “purchase-once, view-anywhere solution,” Google says.
“With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them — offering subscriptions, metered access, ‘freemium’ content or even single articles for sale from their websites or mobile apps,” writes Lee Shirani, director, business product management, Google Commerce. “The service also lets publishers give existing print subscribers free (or discounted) access to digital content. We take care of the rest, including payments technology handled via Google Checkout.”
The roll-out of Google One Pass comes one day after Apple announced a subscription model for iOS devices. As the Financial Times reports, Google will take a 10 percent cut of any revenue from One Pass, compared to Apple’s 30 percent take on subscriptions sold for iOS devices.
Google’s Eric Schmidt announced Google One Pass at Humboldt University in Berlin today. The company says its goal is to provide an open and flexible platform to support publishers and journalism.
The first partners include German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online (Tomorrow Focus), Stern.de, Media General, NouvelObs, Bonnier’s Popular Science, Prisa and Rust Communications.
Google One Pass is currently available in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. The company plans to expand to other geographies in the coming months.
The Google One Pass FAQ can be found here, and the company posted the following overview video for the product:
Apple officially rolls out App Store subscription service for publishers
By Chris Hogg
Apple confirmed Tuesday a new subscription service is now available to all publishers who have content-based apps on the App Store. The subscription service will allow newspapers, magazines, video and music publishers to charge a recurring fee.
The subscription model was first announced when Apple and News Corp. announced the iPad-only publication called The Daily. Then, Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet Services for Apple, said the subscription service was being launched with The Daily but other publishers would be able to use the feature eventually. Today, Apple confirmed the availability of the subscription service for all publishers. Apple said the service will use the same App Store billing system used for in-app purchases and publishers will be able to set the price and length of subscription.
Subscriptions can be offered on a weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly basis. When users download an app using the new subscription service, they will be prompted to pick the length of subscription and are billed accordingly. Subscriptions can be reviewed an managed from an account page, including the ability to cancel a subscription that is set to auto-renew.
As for revenue-split, Apple says it will process all payments and keep a 30 percent share of revenue, which is the same percentage the company takes for other in-app purchases.
“Our philosophy is simple,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a news release. “When Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing. All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app.”
Apple says publishers can offer subscriptions via their website and choose their own pricing and because Apple does not manage these transactions, the company will not take a revenue share and no customer information is shared with Apple. In this case, Apple says a publisher will need to authenticate a user using their own process.
However, Apple’s publisher guidelines say a publisher who sells a digital subscription outside of an app will have to offer the same subscription at the same price or less within apps. Apple’s terms also say a publisher cannot include links within an app to encourage users to purchase subscriptions outside of the app.
“We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers,” Jobs said.
While Apple’s launch of a subscription model is being widely discussed in media circles for its potential to generate a new revenue stream, it remains to be seen if readers are willing to fork over cash to access content in apps when a lot of content is available freely on the Internet.
“[This year] is the year of media subscriptions,” said Larry Dignan with ZDNet. “The rub is we don’t know whether consumers will go along for the ride. It’s quite possible that 2011 will merely be the year of trying to do media subscriptions.”
Apple says customer privacy will be protected and users will be prompted with an option to share their name, email and zip code with a publisher when they subscribe. When a user shares information, personal info will be governed by a publisher’s privacy policy and not Apple’s, the company says.
Apple has sold more than 15 million iPads the company says iPad customers are huge consumers of news, downloading more than 200 million news apps to date.
Report: New York Times online subscription will cost less than $20/Month
By Chris Hogg
Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg is reporting the New York Times will charge less than $20 per month for full access to its online newspaper when it launches its paywall later this month.
As Bloomberg reports: “The price has been set at less than the $19.99 that customers pay for a New York Times subscription on Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle reader, said the person, who declined to be identified because the price hasn’t been made public yet.”
The price point is in-line with what New York Times president Scott Heekin-Canedy said last month, when he announced it would be comparable to the Kindle subscription.
The paywall issue is a big one for media publishers who fear a switch to a paid-only option will drive away readership, which in-turn will affect advertising. The issue has been big in media circles since The Guardian reported The Times Online in the United Kingdom saw its online readership drop by almost 90 percent after the paywall went up. Numbers from Nielsen Co. show a 40 percent drop in the first several months after the paywall was announced, Bloomberg notes.
“Times Co. and other newspaper publishers are trying to determine how much of their online content should remain free, how much can be moved behind a paywall, and how much to charge for access,” Bloomberg reports. “The companies are seeking new revenue sources as print advertising and circulation revenue decline amid competition from Internet publications.”
Janet Robinson, CEO of Times Co. said some content will remain free but the company will begin charging for content in the first quarter of this year.
The New York Times will allow visitors to its site to read a set number of articles each month before being prompted to pay for full access. The number of stories visitors can read for free has yet to be announced. Print subscribers will have full access to the online publication at no extra charge.
Comment: Google and Apple go at it on the future of news
The following is a guest post by Tamlin Magee, a journalist with the TechEye. It originally appeared on TechEye and has been reprinted with permission. You can follow him on Twitter @wegotblankets.
—
By Tamlin Magee,
The war on the future of news reporting continues to find its place on the digital battleground with Apple and Murdoch signing on for a not-so-civil partnership. Google has been testing the waters in Italy with a pay-as-you-go paywall for some time now – but according to reports it has been stepping up its game against Apple, saying: “Hey, we’ve got mobile devices too!”
Google is doing the rounds trying to nick and create new partners for its own “digital newsstand,” reports the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal. The WSJ suggests Google is “chasing Apple” which already has a slew of titles available for its costly thin rectangle, the iPad, but the truth is sales have been slipping over 2010. Both rags and mags were hit.
Details of Google’s foray into the world of printed news are thin on the ground. In fact, some speaking to the WSJ have doubts it’ll appear at all. We’d be surprised. A monopoly on the news is a valuable thing and already publishers are chasing their own tails in search of extra hits from Google’s engine and that mysteriously coded algorithm behind news dot google.
Apple is about to refurbish iTunes‘ back-end to give an enticing helping hand to publishers who have been on the fence about signing up.
It wants to make selling publications and subscriptions over iTunes easier while it will also discretely take in data about consumer buying habits. It wants to share purchase data about publisher’s apps and flog that on to the publishing houses themselves. It’ll have a 30 percent take on subscriptions.
Whether Apple, Google or a seperate third party take the biscuit with wooing publishers one thing is for certain – it is dangerous territory. Publishers and editors must think of their readers first, and take a stand against the changing agenda of news as dictated by the pushers of products. You wouldn’t let a paper mill run its press releases on the front pages – so why Google, or Apple?
Really, tablets are a means to an end. But many, including the Financial Times’ web editor, don’t agree. Robert Shrimsley said late last year: “Apple’s power as a distributor is something we will have to get used to.”
It’s all about tablet computing, according to the manufacturers of tablet computers. They want you to believe it’s a tactile and fun way to read a newspaper without smudging ink over your fingers, and a fresh take on looking at the news. High definition photos, embedded video, etc.
Apple is, obviously, way ahead of the game with the success of the iPad but – as we’ve said before – every electronics manufacturer wants their slate in your home.
There have been tests into reading habits on tablets and e-readers compared to books and papers. It turns out reading on a shiny, handheld screen marks well on enjoyment. But reading on a screen rather than paper has its downsides – the reader is more likely to scan paragraphs instead of letting it all sink in. Not a bad thing depending on your paper of choice.
Check out Leah Borromeo’s column for us in November 2010. She suggests that the case isn’t that there’s an Apple bias in the media, it’s that “Apple has managed to get the media to buy into the ideal of the Apple.”
Is the iPad, or Google’s alternative Android offerings, or any other tablet, really the be all and end all of news publishing? Probably not. The internet still hasn’t killed the newspaper.
Or the film industry.
Or the music industry.
It has been something which must be adapted to and worked alongside traditional means and we imagine tablets will be no different.
First spectacularly shameless plug of 2011 goes to the Wall Street Journal, which, ahem, slates the competition in one paragraph and whores itself in the next.
“Some companies already offer subscriptions through iTunes, but they have largely cobbled them together,” it begins. “Newsweek sells 12 and 24 week subscriptions to the iPad editiong, though Apple handles the transaction and Newsweek doesn’t know who the subscribers are.”
“The Wall Street Journal sells iPad subscriptions for $3.99 a week.”
External links: online.wsj.com
—
The following is a guest post by Tamlin Magee, a journalist with the TechEye. It originally appeared on TechEye and has been reprinted with permission. You can follow him on Twitter @wegotblankets. This blog post is part of the Future of Media‘s ongoing coverage and examination of what’s happening in the media around the world. If you have a story idea, please contact us.