For over a decade, consumers have been reading newspapers free on the net. More people are reading the newspapers and fewer are buying it.
One possible answer newspaper sees are paywall. These paywalls make people pay before they can read newspapers online. In the early days on the net, these were tried and slowly dropped. Now many newspaper companies want to try again.
If the rumours are correct, soon some of the larger Australian newspapers will be putting up paywalls.
I confess being sceptical that these *paywalls* will work for newspapers.
Here are some preliminary figures from the USA. Newsday in 2009, weekday circulation was 377,500 making it the 11th-highest in the United States.
The newspaper paid $4 million to set up a paywall. On October 22, 2009 it went up. Since the paywall gone up, there has been a 41.5% drop in site traffic. Over that period, they have gained 35 subscribers paying $5 a week{Link removed].
At present, the only financial model that works for mass newspapers is print.
