Charging for content online so people won’t read it

There’s lots of chatter about MediaNews Group’s plan to charge for some content online. Details still TK, but this is important: MediaNews president Jody Lodovic doesn’t expect the pay wall to generate significant income.

Lodovic told Editor & Publisher’s Jennifer Saba, “The whole idea is to stop the erosion from print to online and encourage people to become print subscribers.” It’s less a revenue stream than a loss dam — and for a company with 54 daily newspapers that make nearly all of their money in print, it makes some sense. In any event, it’s a new way to think about pay walls.

Zachary M. Seward | May 13, 2009 | 3:04 p.m.

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  1. Pacchettizzato « Il Giornalaio at 11:23 pm, May 18, 2009

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  2. Four observations about charging for news that are often overlooked » Nieman Journalism Lab at 11:09 am, May 29, 2009

    [...] of income at most newspaper companies. In fact, MediaNews Group’s president, Jody Lodovic, recently told Editor & Publisher that while the company plans to erect pay walls, it doesn’t expect a [...]

     
  3. » Thoughts on charging for news (and succeeding) | The Journalism Iconoclast at 3:26 pm, June 10, 2009

    [...] possible reason for a pay wall, and yet some news orgs are hoping that a pay wall will save print. MediaNews president Jody Lodovic said, ”The whole idea is to stop the erosion from print to online and encourage people to become [...]

     
  4. Will people pay for the New York Times online? | Old Media, New Tricks at 10:04 am, January 20, 2010

    [...] price that the public is going to be asked to pay. Also unanswered is what is the overarching goal: to protect the print product (by creating a barrier to reading the content online, driving people to print) or to boost revenue [...]

     

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