Paywalls are the newest trend to surface for print-to-online publications. What exactly are paywalls? Well, the majority of these sources are originally print publications that also have an online site to view their content. They started out by making their content free online only and their paper subscribers were paying a monthly subscription fee. With the coming of the digital age, more and more people are moving away from print to purely digital.
Upon realizing that people were only visiting the online site and their paper subscriptions were hitting record lows, these publications began implementing paywalls. This means you have to pay to view the content on their site.
The New York Times, while not the first ever to put up a paywall, has seen record increase in subscriptions since implementation. The LA Times jumped on the bandwagon shortly after and have also seen an increase in sales. Gannett, who controls 80 of the U.S. newspaper outlets, has already installed paywalls on 52 of their sites.
Is this the future of printed news? Will we see more and more of these paywalls pop up as time goes on? BestOnlineColleges has put together an infographic detailing just how paywalls work and what to expect in the near future.
Source: Paywall Trends