Paywall - Current Implementations

Current Implementations

See also: List of public domain resources behind a paywall

The Wall Street Journal was for a time the last major newspaper in the US to still have its website behind a paywall, until the New York Times reinstituted one on 28 March 2011. The Journal has almost one million paying online readers.

Recent extensions include the idea of a "soft" paywall, one that is relatively porous, with the New York Times version noted as "so porous that it can be considered to be a genuinely freemium model." In such cases the difference between a paywall and a Freemium model disappears.

In the UK, MoneyWeek started using a paywall in 2005. Now 60% of the magazine content stays behind the subscriber paywall for one month. This includes cover stories and in-depth articles. Managing Director Toby Bray says they are keen to emulate the FT.com model which gives access to a certain number of articles per month across the entire site.

• The Dallas Morning News reported 49,000 digital only subscribers to its digital offerings one year after implementation. This represents new circulation, since the online offerings are free to current print subscribers who register. 91,000 print subscribers have registered their accounts.
• In the US, the large daily Newsday charged $5 a week for access to its website, for which subscribers to parent company Cablevision's Internet access were exempt (Cablevision holds the cable franchise rights to most of Long Island). By mid-January 2010, three months after charging began, just 35 subscribers had signed up. It temporarily removed its paywall in December 2010, only to reinstate it in January 2011.
• The Financial Times charges readers on a "metered" model, under which readers get access to some articles for free, but must pay for more. The system is generally regarded as a success. From April 2010 the FT dropped its metered free access without registering option and now requires all readers to register before they can view articles — free access is still available after registering on a metered monthly basis. As of June 2012, the Financial Times has 285,000 paying online-only subscribers and is expected to have more online subscribers than print subscribers sometime in 2013. Digital subscriptions at this paper are still growing at an annual rate of about 30%.
• The Times and Sunday Times newspapers started charging to access their websites in June 2010. Users pay £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription. As of May 2012, the Times now has nearly 120,000 paying digital-only subscribers.
• The New York Times began charging $15 for a four week subscription to its website beginning on 28 March 2011. Users can read up to 10 articles a month for free, after which they will be prompted to subscribe. As of May 2012, The New York Times now has 472,000 digital-only subscribers and has reported gains in Sunday print circulation.
• In August 2011, The Onion’s website began testing a paywall model using the Press+ service. Non-U.S. visitors who want to read more than about five stories within 30 days must pay $2.95 monthly or $29.95 annually. "We are testing a meter internationally as readers in those markets are already used to paying directly for some (other) content, particularly in the UK where we have many readers," said Onion, Inc. chief technology officer Michael Greer. This new attempt at a paywall comes 6 years after the removal of the ill received Onion Premium paywall which launched in 2004 and was taken down in 2005.
• Press+ is a paywall providing service that was started by Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Press+ now claims to have over 300 publications using its paywall service.
• On 31 May 2012, The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky placed almost all of its online content behind a paywall, allowing free access to 20 articles a month before prompting readers to subscribe. Exceptions to the paywall are section fronts, obituaries, and classified ads. The C-J is one of several papers owned by Gannett that have recently instituted paywalls.
• In May 2012 the online edition of the Norwegian Fædrelandsvennen (fvn.no) implemented a paywall for most of their content. Fædrelandsvennen is one of several newspapers owned by the Schibsted Media Group in Norway. FVN.no is the pilot paywall implementation for the Schibsted Media Group.
• In February 2013, Journal Broadcast Group announced it would be using LA-based company MediaPass to offer exclusive content on its RightWisconsin website. RightWisconsin is the first Journal Broadcast media property to implement a subscription system.
• In January 2013, Weekly World News announced it would be using MediaPass to implement a pay model for their content. The initial limit was set at three free article views, with some content remaining unmetered. While other paywall solutions can take months to implement, MediaPass reportedly generates a line of custom Javascript that allows for content monetization in as little as five minutes.