Viewpoint: Another paper takes the digital paywall route

304
Advertisement

Does Philly.com have enough unique content to justify the change?

The Philadelphia Inquirer-Daily News website (Philly.com) Tuesday this week moved to a paywall for nonsubscribers.

According to WHYY Newsworks, the paywall will limit out-of-towners to a few stories a month. The News-Journal has a similar metering system that has been around for a  few years.

Here’s an explanation from Philly.com on options that include limits to comments without a subscription. 

For readers of our daily newsletter,  it will mean fewer links to Philly.com stories that include Delawarean Joe DiStefano’s  strong coverage of DuPont Co. and its demise.

Advertisement

The Inquirer-Daily News faces the dilemma of digital advertising only amounting to a fraction of print.  It needs to find the money elsewhere after seeing total revenues and circulation plunge by half over the years. 

The interesting wrinkle here is that the Philadelphia papers are now owned by a non-profit entity, but still opted for the paywall.

That means, Philly.com will compete for the subscription dollars of well-heeled readers, who shell out the bucks for the better-staffed and nationally oriented  Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.

 Another dirty little media secret is worth noting. Much of the routine local news you see in Delaware, Philadelphia and elsewhere is based on an initial press release or police report. 

That has led to a couple of local sites in Delaware, First State Update and Delaware Free News that specialize in “scanner news.”

There is nothing wrong with picking up the report,  adding background and making a phone call or two. That’s part of what we do. But does that rise to the level of asking nonsubscribers to pay up?

Court coverage and investigative pieces are another story, but there is little evidence that paywalls increase such coverage.

Sometimes the opposite is true when the inevitable layoffs occur after the paywall is installed. That’s what occurred at the News Journal. 

A secondary issue involves the “takeover” and pop-up ads that make for a poor user experience. Is it fair to require that those paying for a subscription to endure the annoying pitches that also seem to slow down the site? 

Sneakier types may do End-arounds through various methods that increase the number of free visits. 

Expect to see more aggregation take place with various players linking to the pay walled  Philly.com site and running summaries that can run a couple of hundred words.

 One growing enterprise is American Community Journals,  a group of suburban Philadelphia news websites and newsletters that typically aggregate content.

Philadelphia Magazine and other free sites have used a similar strategy in response to paywalls like the one used by the Philadelphia Business Journal, which limits free visits to three a month.

Traffic could also spike at BillyPenn.com, which uses a website and Twitter to link to stories, but also has an increasingly robust amount of original content. 

Also in the mix is a WHYY Newsworks, which provides hyperlocal content for Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, as well as the sizable digital operations of nearly all Philly TV stations. 

As for our newsletter, we typically do not link to paywall content. We hold to the view that running a lengthy summary without background or analysis raises ethical issues, regardless of our views on paywalls.

On our website, at times, we will  cite the original source for a story and then make our own inquiries and add background from our files or personal knowledge.

Unless staff is added and other steps are taken to bolster content, local print media’s move to paywalls merely postpones the inevitable. 

In the past (and Philly.com and the News Journal are no exception) staff is cut and then paywalls come into play. 

Advertisement
Previous articlePersonnel file: Sept. 5, 2017
Next articleCarney establishes advisory group that will study self-driving vehicles, technologies
Delaware Business Now is a four-year-old, five-day-a-week newsletter and website operated by Bird Street Media LLC. Publisher and Chief Content Officer is Doug Rainey, a 30-year veteran of business journalism in the state of Delaware.  Business Now focuses on breaking business news in Delaware and immediate adjacent areas with apropriate background and perspective. Also offered exclusively in our FREE newsletter is commentary on state and regional issues. Have a complaint, question or even a compliment? Send an email to drainey@delawarebusinessnow.com. For advertising information, click on the About tab at the top of the home page Our business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Call us at 302.753.0691.
Advertisement