Wait, Wasn't A Paywall Supposed To Boost Ad Revenue?

from the that's-what-we-were-told dept

Mon, Aug 9th 2010 9:48pm — Mike Masnick

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.

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Filed Under: ads, journalism, paywalls
Companies: cablevision, newsday

11 Comments

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AW, 9 Aug 2010 @ 10:10pm

Fish...meet barrel..pew pew... We can win the battles, but to win the war we need the new media to create an event that will cause public outcry before anything is done, 3 years tops before this happens.
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Penguin, 9 Aug 2010 @ 10:29pm

I hope that Cablevision's ads look better than the ones on this site.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Aug 2010 @ 10:51pm

Honestly the only reason I haven't signed up to a Newsday or a Times is because of all the extra nonsense that clutters up their portal. I mean honestly? I don't care about some piddling civil war or third-world hunger or this year's elections - they just get in the way of all amazing free ipods and laptops that I can win, or the internet virus scanner!
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Pierre Wolff (profile), 9 Aug 2010 @ 11:37pm

Nevermind ad revs
Forget ad revenues on their own, are their subscription fees *plus* their ad revenues (however small these might be) add up to more revenue than just their ad revenues before the paywall went up? That's the real question.
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DSchmeling (profile), 9 Aug 2010 @ 11:52pm

Re:
I dunno, I like Schrodinger's Cat. And sometimes I'm really curious as to what it has to do with some woman's chicken... Maybe if you put the chicken in the room with a cat locked up... Yeah, and a bit of radioactive wonderfulness that if it decays unleashes the cat upon the chicken... Hmmm, Schrodinger's Cat eats Strange Woman's Chicken, it's got awesome written all over it!
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BearGriz72 (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 1:08am

Re: Re:
"Schrodinger's cat eats Strange Woman's Chicken" As the chicken simultaneously did _and_ did not cross the road.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 10 Aug 2010 @ 2:16am

Schrödinger’s Cake
You can have it and eat it too.

Or can you?
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Steve R. (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 5:36am

Advertising Revenue and Schrodinger's Cat
I think that there is a correlation problem.

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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Hephaestus (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 6:54am

Re: SchrÃ¶dingerâ��s Cake
Yes, but only if you put a person in the box with the cake. Until the box is openned the cake exists in both states eaten and not eaten.

I hope that helps ... :)
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TheStupidOne, 10 Aug 2010 @ 8:17am

Better Way ...
If you want to increase your per reader ad revenue, include an optional log in so that readers can comment and rate articles and have it stored in their profile. Then the site can give you suggested reading that you might appreciate, and they can sell you to advertisers for a premium
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Aaron Schoenberger, 4 Sep 2010 @ 8:05pm

Paywall = Bad Idea
I, personally, believe paywalls are a waste. They push visitors away because similar content, if not exactly the same content, can be found on other websites. This needs to be overcome.
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