This week Irish regional news websites have started charging for content. Chances are that you haven’t already spotted this. I say that this because if you are anything like me, you probably consume media a lot differently than the masses.
Before I start, I want you to know that I was previously in gainful employment with the Irish Independent and worked in the team and on the platform behind these regional web sites. Although its been over a year since I worked there, I have some understand of why they might have decided to charge for content. Before I start to explain the rationale, I want you to know that I think that this move will prove in time to be a huge mistake. Anyone who is in advertising might tell you that this move will more than likely obliterate most of the traffic and advertising revenue on these on-line publications.
Regional newspapers are hugely different to main stream media, in that the content and its target market is quite niche. This causes a whole array of issues when your business model is based on advertising. The fact that regional publishers have such a niche audience means that your advertising volumes / reach falls to a point where its almost counter intuitive for a main stream brand to advertise there.
The problem that regional publishers have is that, trying to get local regional advertisers to advertises on the web is almost impossible. Many regional publishers and the their advertisers don’t understand the whole on-line advertising thing. If they do understand online, they probably realise that the vast majority of people who read regional papers online aren’t in fact in their target market.
If you did some research on this you might find that a large percentage of people who read regional titles online are in fact from outside of the target market / region. Some might speculate that a large percentage of the readers of such a publication are ex pats overseas or people who have migrated to another part of the country. This is mainly because regional papers have quite limited distribution pattern. If you are outside of Fingal for example, chances are you have never seen a physical copy of the Fingal Independent.
With this in mind, the publishing group might have decided to start charging for content. After all, large websites costs money to run! The reason news papers provide free content online is to get eyeballs that can be converted to advertising revenue. If you can’t sell the adverting then its a bit of a no brainier. You have to make money somewhere right?
This is where the argument gets a bit fuzzy.. Traditional media at this point goes back to what it knows best. If you cant make money from advertising, you have to start charging for the content. If you cant charge for content and cant sell advertising you end up something like the herald AM, now known as the Metro Herald .
My view on this is that the above is all fundamentally flawed. Some might say that the reason they are charging for the content and making it as expensive if not more expensive than the offline equivalent is to drive you back to the traditional publication and boost readership. When you factor in that there is a very low distribution cost online, I cant fathom why else they would be charging in this way.
In my mind, charging more for content on-line only makes sense if you are adding some extra value or providing access to something that you cant obtain in the traditional paper. Where they went wrong was they started trying to charge for something that had previously been provided free of charge. That would be OK, if when you paid they stripped out all of the advertising or provided you with something a bit more substantial. Why not bundle a number if offerings together. IE: When you pay monthly, you should get access to all regional publications including access to all digital supplements, the digital edition and a free download of an improved version of their iPhone app. That seems like a better offer / value proposition to me.
I just wish that Irish traditional media would make up there mind. If it doesn’t work. you do have to fix it .. but I feel there was some old school media bods influencing this decision.
My main question to you is.. Would you pay for regional news content and what would inspire you to part with your hard earned cash? Please leave your comments below.
Also check out
Interesting opinion Jason.
Murdoch has been keen to throw up the paywall. The Sunday TImes has had a paywall story on a weekly basis for the past few months to soften people up.
My view is to let them. Trad media is full of press releases and planted stories. They say that news is what someone else doesn’t want you to know so by trad media putting up the walls independent media will thrive.
And if the readers of regional papers are outside the target market surely they are the market? Instead of fighting it, why not target them?
I think trad media is on the ropes. I think the daily newspaper will become a thing of the past.
I am guilty of Reading regional papers online. I have an interest in local matters as I am politically active. However I would often read these papers online and follow up with an offline purchase if I find something of interest. It’s a form of try before you buy. It’s not all about the cost either it can seem wasteful to have a paper strewn about the house for a week especially if an edition featuring nothing of particular interest. If a pay wall was introduced though I would probably buy the hard copy edition every week rather than subscribe online. Though a techie I like a physical newspaper for a substantative read. Also more practical to share a physical copy amongst a household.
On a slightly related note I recently purchased the Irish Independent iPhone app. What a disappointment. It had less stories than the online free version and was harder to navigate. I abandoned it in favour of the browser and wrote off the 3.99 begrudgedly.
Here in England some of the regionals (Johnston Press) have already put up paywalls for a couple of pubs. I don’t see it lasting though. The problem being that the websites themselves are an utter pain to use. Crummy search, slow to load, antique appearance… And if local advertisers are reluctant to advertise on these sites, then I’m not surprised – I’d be reluctant too.