18th WORLD EDITORS FORUM

Session: Paywalls, from the newsroom perspectiveSpeakers: Bill Mitchell, Dirk Nolde, Matúš Kostolný, Jim Roberts

Vienna, Reed Messe Wien

Mark your calendar

64th WORLD NEWSPAPER CONGRESS19th WORLD EDITORS FORUM

www.wan-ifra.org/kiev2012

Paywalls from the newsroom perspective

WAN-IFRA-WEF 2011Vienna, Austria | October 15, 2011

Bill Mitchell, The Poynter Institute, @bmitch

Dirk Nolde, Berliner Morgenpost, @BMOnline

Matúš Kostolný, SME.sk, @denniksme

Jim Roberts, The New York Times, @nytjim

What we’ll do this morning • Terms of the deals• Glimpses of how they work• Results so far• Lessons learned• Questions, comments, suggestions

from the audience

But first, some history from WAN ‘94

Current writing on the (pay) wall

1. Old debate: reach vs. revenue -- New era: reach and revenue2. Crucial to engage the social web as

well as the paid web3. Paid content having more positive

impact on newsroom attitudes than expected

4. Flexibility is key

Focus on best customers Two different approaches: Reward them by providing free digital access to all print subscribers Rely on them by charging a small extra fee for digital access

80 Percent of 130 Press+ Publishers charge print subscribers an extra fee for digital Interestingly, those publishers get better results in selling digital-only

Dirk Nolde, managing editor for digital,

Terms & circumstances of Paid: Paywall erected December 2009 Free for print subscribers (80,000) €4.90 @ month for non-subscribers Behind the wall: local & sports news Morgenpost.de the only paid site among 5 local/2 national sites in Berlin

Some results so far: 11,000 digital subscribers (includes print subscribers who register for free digital) December 2009: 2,4 million visits September 2010: 3,3 million visits September 2011: 5,1 million visits Increased incentive for quality content

Matúš Kostolný, editor-in-chiefSME.sk | @denniksme

Paywall erected on 9 Slovak sites May 2011 €2.90 @ month/€29 @ year Free for print subscribers Behind the wall: opinion, political news, etc. Wall removed for big stories (like this week)

Outside the wall this week

Some results so far: Revenue shared proportionately (€40,000 in first month for all 9 sites) Improves quality of online comments Overall traffic increase (5%) but 20% drop for locked sections like opinion

Jim Roberts, assistant managing editor

Terms & circumstances of paid: Metered (leaky) wall erected March 2011 Still free: links from search, social web; first 20 articles each month Free for print subscribers; others pay $35 @ mo Digital is $5 cheaper ($30) for subscribers who agree to take Sunday print edition

Outside the wall

Some results so far: 1 million digital users, including 281,000 digital-only Uptick in print subscriptions Slight dip in page views; modest increase in unique visitorsAttitude shift in the newsroom

Lessons Learned

Questions, comments, suggestions