Wait, Wasn't A Paywall Supposed To Boost Ad Revenue?
from the that's-what-we-were-told dept
One of the claims we regularly hear from supporters of online newspaper paywalls is that even if it decreases page views, it can actually increase ad revenue, because the publisher has a lot more information about the audience and can sell that for more -- and, in theory, the audience is more loyal and engaged. We still haven't seen that in practice, of course. And it's worth pointing out that Cablevision, who put up a disastrously ill-conceived paywall for the newspaper Newsday, is now reporting that ad revenues continue to decline pretty substantially. To be fair, some will point out that Cablevision doesn't care that much, and is really just trying to use Newsday to stop people from dumping their cable TV/broadband offerings. That may be true -- and the same report does note that Cablevision added both TV and internet subscribers -- but it's worth pointing out for other news publications who make the claim about how paywalls can boost ad revenue.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: ads, journalism, paywalls
Companies: cablevision, newsday
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Re:
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Schrödinger’s Cake
Or can you?
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Re: Schrödinger�s Cake
I hope that helps ... :)
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Nevermind ad revs
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Advertising Revenue and Schrodinger's Cat
Advertising revenue is declining for a lot media irrespective of whether a pay-wall exists or does not exist. So the question becomes: How can the loss of adverting revenue be attributed to the pay-wall?
I'm confused as to the relevance of Schrodinger's Cat to the chicken. With Schrodinger's Cat, the cat's state (existence) is undetermined and does not become established until examined.
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Better Way ...
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Paywall = Bad Idea
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