Charging for Access Doesn't Slow Growth of Newspaper Websites
- by April 9, 2002
How come they didn't know that in Tulsa and Albuquerque?
The Tulsa World initiated its subscription fee in June of 2001 and the Albuquerque Journal followed in July.
According to The Media Audit, the Journal site attracted 13.6% of the adults in its market "during the past 30 days" in 2000 and 15% during 2001. The Media Audit household survey was performed during October/November of 2001, four months after the initiation of the subscription fee.
In Tulsa the story is the same, but the numbers are much more impressive. In The Media Audit for 2000, the Tulsa World site attracted 16.8% of adults to its site. That survey was conducted seven months prior to the initiation of the subscription fee. Four months after the fee was imposed The Media Audit surveyed the market again and found that 18.2% of adults in the Tulsa market had accessed the World site during the past 30 days.
"We were surprised by the research findings," says Bob Jordan, co-chairman of the 31-year-old research firm that produces The Media Audit in 85 metro markets. "The research makes it pretty clear that the switch to paid access can be made - at least in some markets -- without damaging the long term prospects of the site," he added.
The Journal and the World are among sixteen daily newspapers with fee-for-access websites that are being tracked by the Newspaper Association of America. The last report on the NAA website was in October. The two newspapers were the only ones among the sixteen that were in markets served by The Media Audit.
The audience for both newspaper and websites, as reported by The Media Audit, include non-paid as well as paid visitors to the site. According to the NAA report the non-paid visitors to the Journal are permitted access to the front page, index pages and classifieds. The World permits free access to classifieds, weather, stock ticker, calendars and recipes.
According to a spokesman, the Tulsaworld.com now has more than 27,000 online members that include 24,500 print subscribers who registered for online access. The remaining 2500 are web-only subscribers. The World charges $5 a week and $45 per year for access to its site and archives.
Abqjournal.com reported 728 online-only subscribers. Of those 493 are yearly, the others are month-by-month. In addition, 7,604 print subscribers have registered for site access. The Journal also reported to NAA that 293 print subscribers came through the web site between August and October of 2001.
