1. 18th WORLD EDITORS FORUM
Session: Paywalls, from the newsroom perspective
Speakers: Bill Mitchell, Dirk Nolde, Matúš Kostolný, Jim Roberts
Mark your calendar
64th WORLD NEWSPAPER CONGRESS
19th WORLD EDITORS FORUM
Vienna, Reed Messe Wien
www.wan-ifra.org/kiev2012

2. Paywalls from the
newsroom perspective
WAN-IFRA-WEF 2011
Vienna, 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

3. 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

4. But first, some history from
WAN ‘94

6. Current writing on the (pay)
wall
1. Old debate: reach vs. revenue
-- New era: reach and revenue
2. Crucial to engage the social web as
well as the paid web
3. Paid content having more positive
impact on newsroom attitudes than
expected
4. Flexibility is key

7. 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

8. Dirk Nolde, managing editor for
digital,

9. 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

12. 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

13. Matúš Kostolný, editor-in-chief
SME.sk | @denniksme

14.  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)

16. Outside the wall this week

17. 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

18. Jim Roberts, assistant managing
editor

19. 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

23. Outside the wall

25. 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 visitors
Attitude shift in the newsroom

26. Lessons Learned
Questions, comments,
suggestions