A regional daily editor has thanked readers who have subscribed following the launch of an online paywall – saying he makes “no apologies” for its introduction.
Mark Waldron, left, who edits Portsmouth daily The News, has published a letter of thanks to those who have supported the newspaper’s website by signing up to the scheme.
Owner JPIMedia revealed in May that The News and Blackpool daily The Gazette would be the first of its titles to implement paywalls on a trial basis, with an introductory offer of a £1 per month for three months on the sites.
The Scotsman has also since moved to the model, which allows readers access five free articles per week before being asked to pay.
In his letter, Mark wrote: “Thank you. Two words which mean so much although may not necessarily do justice to my appreciation of all the loyal readers who continue to support The News since we launched our portsmouth.co.uk subscription model at the start of the summer.”
He added: “We continue to gain new subscribers every day, all people who support and trust what we do and believe it is worth paying for. We continue to learn more about what our subscribers (and registered users) enjoy reading and that will continue to shape our content moving forward as we will write more about what interests you and less about those matters which don’t.
“Obviously, the move to subscriptions was never going to be universally welcomed. I have dealt with a raft of questions and complaints on the subject and I too see the comments posted on our social media feeds. But I make no apologies for the decision we have taken.
“I knew that we would not take everyone with us on this exciting new news journey but at least by complaining it did show that people cared about and enjoyed the content we provide them. We could just no longer sustain this as a free service.”
No statistics have yet been made available by JPIMedia regarding the number of people subscribing as a result of the trials, but it is understood the pilot scheme will be assessed within the next two months before a decision is made on whether it should be expanded.
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And there’s the (next to) bottom line – “no statistics have yet been made available” in relation to their subscribers. Makes you wonder whether they’ve got very many.
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At last someone has had the courage to bite the bullet.
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An exciting new news journey, eh? I can hardly contain myself.
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I’m with ex regional journo and will reserve judgement til we are told how many have signed up and how many they attract by the end of the trial period.
Getting subscribers is one thing, keeping them longer than the first 3 months @ £3 is the real test.
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It will be interesting to see how this one pans out after the initial trial period has ended.
Caution is require though as If they decide they’ve attracted a good number of subscribers at the £1 pm rate and decide to roll it out it doesn’t always follow the trial numbers will continue and the subs grow on a longer term basis.
Launching a paywall scheme then losing site traffic or failing to sign up sufficient numbers post trial then having a rethink and reducing the rate or going free is a huge backwards step.
I wish it well but remain cautious about any regional site attracting enough people willing to pay to read it’s cinyrbt when there’s any number of good alternatives out there for free.
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* content
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All regional publishers vastly overestimate the size of their online audience and how much people actually value their news.
This is why paywalls will only ever work for niche content with a loyal, targeted audience.
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Surely, you’d improve content first. Not sure people will pay to read about a KFC opening. Times + works because the content is so great. These publishers need to realise people will only pay for premium content.
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