• by Paul Gough , November 5, 2003

A former publisher of mine bristled at the thought of posting stories to the Web that readers were paying money to see in print.

He saw that, back in the mid-1990s, there wasn't an economic model to charge for access to a newspaper's Web site. But he didn't want to jeopardize the model that had worked so well since the paper had been founded 100 years before. That model depended on subscriptions from former or part-time residents who wanted to keep up with the hometown news even when they were living elsewhere. The publisher felt that those subscriptions would dry up if the readers could get the news from home free, thus affecting our circulation and ad rates.

Most newspapers faced the same dilemma, and either chose to post the bulk of its stories online for free or made the Web sites much less valuable to the reader. Sometimes, as in the case of Tribune Corp. properties or The New York Times, a visitor would have to undergo a free registration process before accessing stories. Others, like The Washington Post, asked some perfunctory demographic questions.

With the exception of The Wall Street Journal, most haven't charged for access to the stories, even when the advertising revenue doesn't make the free model profitable for the newspaper. My former publisher didn't think it would be anytime soon that we could start charging for the content online. Time has proven him right, although that could be beginning to change.

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune-owned site that has previously offered access to its Web site following free registration, now requires paid access to its "Calendar Live" section, either separately or as part of a print subscription. The Boston Herald's columnists are considered a premium service and online readers have to pay for that part of the site, although the rest of the workaday editorial product is still free.

And in Canada, a major newspaper publisher's Web sites are beginning new pricing tiers. CanWest Interactive began this week implementing a new pricing tier that within the next few months will occur at all of its sites, which include the National Post daily newspaper plus other papers in Canada as well as television and radio properties. CanWest also publishes Canada.com.

Under the new system, only a handful of stories on the site will be free. Print subscribers will be able to access much more, including current and archive stories, columns and op-ed. Full access to the paper's electronic edition will cost more. The new pricing begins in earnest Nov. 30 at the Ottawa Citizen's Web site, which has already started differentiating between free and subscription content even though it hasn't started charging. The Citizen's Web site offers subscriptions - $4.99 a month extra for print subscribers and $18.99 a month otherwise.

That's important for Canadian newspaper publishers in particular, who have to contend with thousands of their customers leaving the country for warmer climes in the United States just before the snow flies. It's a way for the Snowbirds - what Canadians call the ones who leave for Florida in the winter - to keep up with the news from home and for newspapers to keep making money from them. CanWest also thinks it's how to extend their brands to younger readers who aren't interested in a printed newspaper yet still make money on the deal.

"We believe that consumers recognize value, and that they will be prepared to pay for high-quality online content that is comprehensive and unavailable from other sources," explained a CanWest executive.

Whether that's true remains to be seen. I had my doubts seven or eight years ago, and I have them still. With a strong enough connection to a place and a newspaper, maybe. In the pre-Internet days, I paid for a mail subscription to the local daily newspaper because I wanted to keep up with news from home. Now, even though I'm even further away here in New York, I just visit the Web site. If I have to pay for the news, well, I just leave that off the list. I suspect many readers do too.

I don't have to suspect. At one newspaper company where I ran the editorial department, I fielded way too many calls and e-mails from readers who were upset that we didn't have a Web site. Some figured it was the digital age, and that meant that they could grab for free what they'd have to pay for in print. As a reader, I'm like that too. I don't read the printed edition of a newspaper or two that I used to buy religiously, because everything I want is found online. But as a former newspaper executive, I gotta tell you that it's bad for business.

The traditional business, that is.

--Paul Gough