Trends in online content

The Washington Post is using its bloggers and staff to buzz up the status of their new paywall. The action started in March and continues on blogs by Waspost staffers, hitting up a variety of different markets. Let's hope their meter brings in plenty of new revenue.  

Hearst hits 1 million digital subs, but at $20 per subscription, it's not making the big bucks yet. Still, they aren't discounting their digital subscriptions and readers are paying full whack for the magazine. Check out the comments under the story, good value to be had there too. 

Just because Warren Buffet is buying newspapers doesn't mean they are going to survive, at least not in print. Like LPs though, they'll probably become a niche product, Ken Doctor nails it at the end of the article. 

As print advertising revenue slips, digital ad revenue continues to grow, and more importantly, digital circulation revenue is expected to grow almost 30% between 2013 and 2017. So there is hope for the industry yet. 

The BBC is running a series on the future of the media, how the internet is impacting the news industry. Worth a listen if you have the time. 

The WasPost gets wise, launches their meter with a 20 article limit. Pricing WAAY below the NYT $10/month for website access (computer or mobile) or $15/month for everything the WP does digitally.Good luck to them, it's about time. 

Really good ideas about thinking through mobile strategy from Dan Rowinski, mobile editor at ReadWrite. 

New NYT CEO says launch of the paywall was the most imoprtant and successful business decision made by the NYT in years. It certainly helped move the US Newspaper business off the fence when it comes to subscriptions which is great. 

The third British News International product, and by far its most popular, the Sun tabloid, is putting up a £2/week paywall on Aug.1. Smart move as more and more UK publishers are looking for paid content sollutions (including some who are looking at Piano's Solo). 

The FT puts itself in a popular aggregator, but readers only get full access to content if they are already a paying subscriber. Good move by the FT to get its product out to the updated "lean-back" audience. 

More than 30% of US adults now own a tablet according to Pew. Think there's a massive market opportunity there for responsive HTML5 news and magazine apps? 

The new and very groovy New York Times "innovation" issue. Reimagined and HTML5 responsive design. Check it out, very cool. And some interesting articles to boot. 

A few good ideas behind why digital advertising and paywalls can coexist,  If you didn't already know, that is.

Being a former war zone photographer / Freelance, I love that the FrontLine club is stepping up to help out freelancers these days who are going where everyone else dare not. 

Russia Today might be government sponsored, but they are doing something right, hitting 1 million PVs on youtube!

Interesting insights from Toronto's Globe and Mail regarding their conversion to paid content. Worth knowing what's going on up there for sure, eh?

Zino, the digital magazine newsstand has launched Z-Pass which lets subscribers read three different magazines for $5 per month. Pretty good deal considering they offer over 5500 different magazines. 

Newsweek relaunches its website and adds a meter. 

Liberal or Conservative, you have to agree with the NYT's editorial staff when they call out Holder as a hypocrite for speaking out loudly about the IRS investigation and refusing to talk about the AP spy scandal. First amendment be damned it seems. 

If you want to test building your own brand ala Andrew Sullivan, Jurnid has a super-cheap way for you to build your own paywall and test the relevancy of your content.