• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 5, 2024

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. 

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.