Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Paywall

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Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Paywall

Postby jon » Tue May 14, 2013 5:36 pm

Postmedia expands online paywall to remaining publications
By Dietrich Neu, Global News
May 14, 2013 5:20 pm

EDMONTON – Postmedia Inc. has announced it’s extending its digital pay metre to all of its newspapers across Canada.

As of Tuesday, readers of the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald will now have to pay for online content.

The paywall is similar to what the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Globe and Mail have already put in place: 10 free articles per month before readers hit the paywall. After reading eight stories users receive a warning they are about to run out.

Print subscribers will have full access to the website for free.

“This is very much where newspapers are going these days in terms of asking readers to help pay for the content that it costs us a lot of money to generate,” said Lucinda Chodan, editor-in-chief of the Edmonton Journal.

“I believe Edmonton readers are vastly fair and well-informed. When they understand that the idea is that we are not asking them to pay a huge amount of money, but we are asking them to help pay for the content that costs us millions of dollars every year to generate, I think they will be accepting of that.”

According to a Postmedia article, production costs combined with a fragmented ad market are the reasons for the paywall. Digital ad revenue is not getting the job done.

“In the past we used to get the majority of our money from print advertising,” explained Chodan. “Now as people migrate towards other platforms, and they read us online instead of print, we have to find a way to finance what we do, which is gathering local news and information.”

Newspapers across North America, and recently Europe, are adding paywalls to their websites in an attempt to generate revenue from their digital content.

The Edmonton Journal receives at least 13 million page views per month compared to 500,000 readers per week with the print edition of the paper.

Despite negative feedback on social media (read some reaction below), Chodan says Postmedia found that only two per cent of online readers actually hit the 10 article limit, meaning this won’t affect most users.

The Edmonton Journal is part of the final phase of Postmedia’s move to paid online content.

Two years ago, the Victoria Times Colonist – now owned by Glacier Media Inc. – and the Montreal Gazette were the first Postmedia publications to move behind a paywall structure.

Towards the end of last summer, the Vancouver Sun, The Province, and the Ottawa Citizen started metered paywalls that resemble what Postmedia is implementing Tuesday.

“There are a number of Postmedia properties who have already done this,” Chodan said. “What they have said is that there is a slight decrease in page views, but there is also an increase in the revenue that is coming in from people who are paying $9.95 per month to access the content.”

Last October, Postmedia CEO, Paul Godfrey, hinted at plans to extend the paywall to all of publications, saying it was time newspapers all over the world started using pay meter systems.

Postmedia’s article also mentions that most publications decided to hand out their online content for free when the internet became popular in the 1990s, a decision that is now known as the industry’s “original sin.”

In addition to the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald, the National Post, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Regina Leader Post and Windsor Star are starting their “digital pay meter” service Tuesday.

“We are telling people that it costs money to provide them with good quality news that is credible, that can be trusted, and that is gathered and generated locally,” Chodan said. “It isn’t as much, I don’t think, a solution to the fact that people are migrating to other platforms and print advertising revenue is down. It is part of a whole value proposition we have in our relationship with our audience.”

The Toronto Star remains the only major English-language publication without such a paywall – their service begins later this year.
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby jon » Tue May 14, 2013 5:40 pm

From what I've read in the financial press, the New York Times discovered that they actually make more money on advertising now that they have a paywall.

Many, many fewer eyeballs, but advertisers consider the remaining eyeballs of much greater value.

The New York Times experience appears to be at the root of the rush (back, in some cases) into paywalls that prevent the viewing of content without paying. Typically, you are allowed a small number of free views. And some newspapers give you free access if you have a print subscription.

Prices can be quite high. The Globe & Mail wants $19.99 a month of access to their web site.
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby freqfreak2 » Tue May 14, 2013 9:03 pm

jon wrote:EDMONTON – Postmedia Inc. has announced it’s extending its digital pay metre to all of its newspapers across Canada.


For ten dollars a month, I'll expect better proofing than what was posted. The correct word is meter.
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby Mike Cleaver » Tue May 21, 2013 11:49 pm

Just keep changing your IP address and keep reading for free....
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Wed May 22, 2013 7:15 am

I haven't done that for a long while. It's a few simple steps right?
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby cgyroof » Wed May 22, 2013 8:15 am

Because the paywalls use cookies and you are allowed "X" number of visits per month, you can go "incognito" [Ctrl-Shift-N in Chrome or Ctrl-Shift-P in Internet Explorer] and browse your monthly allocation per windows session.
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby Mike Cleaver » Wed May 22, 2013 8:53 am

Numerous free programs, Neumann.
Hotspot Shield is one but as others have stated, there are many available, giving you a different IP address every time you open the program.
Allows access to geo-blocked sites as well.
You can select a US based IP address to access geoblocked US sites and the same applies to other countries as well.
Some programs are more flexible than others and offer enhanced opportunities if you pay an upgrade fee.
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby PMC » Wed May 22, 2013 11:04 pm

A perfect example of the ying and yang binary flavour, where one tries to profit by creating a paywall, and the other who actually profits by removing what the wall creates. :tonguewaving:

I don't believe paywalls are the answer, and good marketing ads with good content, is. The technology is evolving.

If someone uses a large flat screen with their computer/tv, it gives alot more desktop space, and thus more web browser display area. The trend is toward touch screen and other types of controllers... ie: xbox. The web server side usually knows the screen resolution that you are viewing with....suppose the Star has an ad that plays a video of the advertiser. People like good video. Make intelligent well designed commercials. They don't have to be limited in playback time. Multimedia is yet to be fully appreciated by those that use it.

The screens coming soon are wafer thin, and will eventually be hanging on walls around our homes/office, for the touch screen network access... similar to cell phone use today.

SD cards are the high capacity floppy disk of today. Will newspapers provide their online customers with the yearly collection of news, to use as a reference, or will the paper offer this search ability on their website to a former customer... there is a product and a market... same as it ever was... how much does the business want the customer.. the game is the same, and the customer is using technology...thus the media times are different.
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby PMC » Wed May 29, 2013 12:50 am

Worth the read on thinking big... doubt that it will happen.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/free- ... ne-company
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby jon » Wed May 29, 2013 7:45 am

PMC wrote:Worth the read on thinking big... doubt that it will happen.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/free- ... ne-company

This on-line campaign to raise the money to buy the Tribune group of newspapers, which includes the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune, for the asking price of $660 million, just celebrated meeting 1/10,000th of its fund-raising goal. In fact, they just passed 1/5,000th. Deadline is June 15th.
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Re: Toronto Star only major Can. Newspaper Left without Payw

Postby PMC » Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:30 pm

Things are looking grim with time running out. I thought they would get more than what they have, but doubted the 660 million could be achieved.
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