The media industry has been in a steady decline since the rise of the Internet. With many publications and individuals sharing content online — for free — most consumers felt it was necessary to
pay for newspapers and magazines.
This decline in sales led to a decrease in ad sales and, subsequently, numerous publications either decreasing their print run or being forced to go digital-only. However, the problem with going digital-only is that digital ads are perceived to be less effective than their print counterparts since so many consumers use ad blockers.
Enter, paywalls and subscriptions!In the wake of the fake news crisis, consumers started to realise that just because digital news was free didn’t mean it was real (or well-written, for that matter). Some big-name publications began
putting their content behind paywalls, and others — like
The Guardian and
The New York Times — have employed subscriptions models.
And … the results are in! Subscriptions
actually work.
According to
an article by Nieman Labs,
The New York Times now has 3.78 million digital subscribers, and
The Guardian has 655 000 regular paying supporters and received an additional 300 000 one-off contributions over the past year.
Find out more about these publications' subscription success stories in this video:
Do you think that all publishers should be employing paywalls and subscriptions? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
*Image courtesy of Pexels