Fairfax trials paywalls on local news sites, insists online content ‘should carry a price’
Fairfax is trialling paywalls on local news websites, including the option of buying individual stories, as the publisher insisted online news should carry a price just as it does in print.
The Milton-Ulladulla Times and Bay Post-Moruya Examiner began charging readers to access content today in a deal between Fairfax and micropayment start-up Tapview.
The Milton-Ulladulla Times has two paid plans; a subscriber plan which costs $1 per week to access all content across a new-look website, and a casual plan which charges readers 20c to access local stories, up to a maximum of $2 per week.
I tried to log on to both sites unsuccessfully this morning. Still working with their IT people.
Interesting move, Fairfax. When I’ve been working in regional Fairfax Media papers on and off over the past eight years, there’s soooo much contributed content for which they pay zilch to publish. Will the company be charging people now, too, to read the content they’ve submitted? With the incredible downsizing of these local regional papers, there’s just not enough journalists on the ground to cover stories, so they have to pump the papers with the contributions. And I understand they need the pay walls on their sites to be a business. Be interesting to see how it pans out. I sniff a business opp or two for out-of-work Fairfax writers who know how to monetize local coverage on their own websites/social media sites. That’s not me though.
But local papers are free…
why would i pay for it online?
You have just done the greatest disservice to two groups of readers – the many people who holiday on the south coast and those that are non resident owners but like to keep up to date on local issues.
Interesting that the company hasn’t communicated anything about this trial internally across Australia Community Media.