Yet another paywall may be coming down — that of the nonprofit Salt Lake Tribune. The newspaper, a mainstay of Mormon Utah, is trying to raise money to provide a website that
is free to all.
“It’s a push we’ve started to make this year,” columnist Andy Larsen told Nieman Lab. “We’ve raised $340,000 and
counting to fully remove the paywall on all of our election coverage ahead of the critical 2024 races.”
Larsen added, “We’re not there yet from an income point of view
to make our website free, but we hope to grow our donor base and income to the point that we’ll be able to open everything up to everyone.”
Go for it. Larsen concedes that the
existing paywall, which limits non-subscribers to three stories per month, “has limited some number of people from reading our journalism.”
The thought of a free website
“brought me joy,” Larsen continued.
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According to Nieman Lab, the newspaper brought in $3.3 million from donors in 2023, $5 million from subscribers and $5.2 million from
advertising.
Last year, Tara McGowan, founder and publisher of the Courier Newsroom, argued that news sites should take down their paywalls for their election coverage, and develop
new business strategies to cover the loss of revenue.
These paywall suspensions can drive paid subscriptions, according to a study published last year by Marketing
Science.
Larson states, “Our goal is, at some point in the years to come,” is to remove the Salt Lake Tribune’s paywall.”
This
year’s election is a good place to start.