News UK chief executive Mike Darcey has been clocking up column inches of his own, with his speech at the Institute of Directors containing some pointed comments on paywalls. Discussing The Times business model, he revealed the paper now has nearly 535,000 subscribers, and argued that total paid sales was what really mattered for online content – not online audience.
The dilemma for publishers of all shapes and sizes is whether to sacrifice readership for paying subscribers, or plough efforts into building a much larger but non-paying audience. This relies of course upon free content being sufficiently monetised by a diverse range of advertising revenue streams. It is a discussion popping up everywhere as publishers continue to feel the squeeze, including the recent PDLN conference in Stockholm. Moves to paywalls by The Sun, Daily Telegraph, and most recently the Washington Post were a hot topic, as were price points. The Washington post joins over 400 US dailies now operating this model.
Not all are sold on the idea; publishers like the Guardian News and Media and the Daily Mail and General Trust have become hugely influential by following the free model, with staggeringly large audiences. However the question remains as to whether they can monetise the high quality content they produce to a commercially profitable level. Mailonline looks most likely to, but is still a small scale business. The differences in editorial approach between that and their new iPad edition are interesting illustrations of an important dimension of free v paid.
The decision to charge or not is a matter for individual publishers. NLA media access licensing and eClips web technology platforms are neutral tools designed to give publishers choices supportive of either approach. Whatever the publisher decision, we at NLA media access will continue to work with those who want to supply or use newspaper content for commercial purposes, to ensure they get access and an appropriate licence, and that publishers enjoy a fair return.
Andrew Hughes
Commercial Director, NLA media access
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