Paywall

As a paywall ( German pay- wall) or pay a barrier mechanism is referred to, with the specific content of a site only after payment of a fee or the completion of a subscription are visible ( Paid Content ). The term is common especially at sites of newspapers and magazines that try a paywall to develop an alternative business model that is based not only on a financing or partly by means of advertisements. The reason for the introduction of such pay walls is called by the publishing houses, the compensation of lack of advertising revenues on the World Wide Web.

History

For a long time, the Wall Street Journal, the only major newspaper that completely held up since 1998 behind a paywall content and readers committed to a subscription for a personal application. In June 2010, The Times of London moved to. In 2011, the New York Times introduced a more Paywallvariante: The concept of the so-called " metered paywall " provides that a reader who when calling online articles exceeds a certain number of the month, will be asked to make a payment. This does not include print subscribers and internet users that are routed via a link from a search engine, a blog or a social network on the homepage. This method is implemented using JavaScript code and cookies.

The Internet newspaper The Daily persecuted the system to provide all of the content only on payment of appropriate app or a subscription; they had to be discontinued due to lack of acceptance. The media Madsack since the beginning of 2012 sets of daily newspapers, both a freemium and Metered models.

The taz sets Payment on so-called Social. In spring 2011, a model was developed under the name " Taz - number - I " has been introduced, in which the reader is invited to voluntarily each item to make a payment, to thank that the contents of the newspaper will remain freely available.

Modeled after the New York Times led the end of 2012, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a paywall.

Le Temps in Switzerland, Ha'aretz in Israel and other newspapers carried a similar concepts. Like the Springer newspapers Berliner Morgenpost and Hamburger evening paper in Germany, where World Online ( since 12 December 2012) and Bild.de (since June 2013) with pay walls on the concept of be metered paywall operated. Süddeutsche.de and FAZ.NET also want to introduce a pay barrier by the end of 2013. In the FAZ, the introduction of the pay barrier to the entry of Mathias Müller von Blumencron into the online editorial team would meet together, which is why the step could also delay to the beginning of 2014, it said in September 2013 from the management of the sheet. Time Online plans similar.

In December 2013, the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers ( BDZV) announced that now 70 newspaper titles were established in Germany paid-content models to their sites.

Effects

After the introduction of the paywall at the London daily The Times in June 2010, the site lost over two-thirds of its readers. A study of UKOM / Nielsen on behalf of the journal "Marketing" was at that time that even those readers who would have an online subscription can afford, by the mere necessity of having to register, could discourage them from using the website. This is detrimental to the advertisers because they want to reach a certain minimum number of wealthy customers just behind a paywall. In addition, the newspaper escaped by revenues from the lucrative additional business such as the Sunday Times Wine Club because they were only accessible via an upgrade of the Subscriptions, which had proved to be another hurdle, the magazine writes. That is why many prominent advertisers are failed. Naturally, a Web site that is provided with a pay barrier, not for advertising that is aimed at a mass audience is. According to other reports, even three -quarters of the previous reader had stayed away, and the Guardian calculated that even 90 percent of the previous reader had been lost. The market share of the Times at all British newspapers online was then dropped from 15 to less than one percent.

After the first half- year with a paywall the general manager of " World Online " moved at a meeting of the BDZV the interim results. The actual number of payers, he did not call; he described it as "encouraging". On August 7, 2013 it was announced that the number of digital subscribers to the WORLD 30 June 2013 amounts to more than 47,000. Discussed, however, the significance of the numbers in terms of readiness for content in the network is to be paid as the subscription among other things, in combination with an iPad mini was advertised and sold.