BusinessDay\u2019s foray into a\u00a0digital “paywall” model\u00a0met with a technical glitch on Monday (6 May).<\/p>\n
Writing in his weekly column, the Thick End of the Wedge, Publisher & editor-in-chief at Business Day, Peter Bruce<\/a> confessed to teething problems in getting the paywall system up and running.<\/p>\n \u201cThe paywall, bless it, has for one or another reason fallen over at the last minute,” he said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for BusinessDay told BusinessTech that the group had hoped to go live on Monday, but due to technical issues, it would \u201chopefully\u201d go-live on Tuesday (7 May) afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cPaywalls are not even controversial anymore. The Financial Times and The New York Times and many lesser papers have erected them, with spectacular to reasonable results, in the past few years,\u201d Bruce said.<\/p>\n \u201cIs the South African market too small to host a paywall? Can you get what Business Day offers for free elsewhere on the web? I honestly don\u2019t know. What I do know is that I am tired of giving away our product for nothing. What I do know is that, if only for our print newspaper, this is the right thing to do,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Widely recognised as the most successful paywall pioneer, The New York Times last month, noted that paid digital subscribers totalled about 676,000 as of the end of the first quarter of 2013, while print and digital advertising revenues decreased 13.3% and 4.0%, respectively, largely due to ongoing secular trends and an increasingly complex and fragmented digital advertising marketplace.<\/p>\n The publication\u2019s digital growth however, up 5.6% from the prior quarter, was the weakest since the publication went paywall in 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cI would suggest that you obtain a digital (BDlive) and print (Business Day) combination, mainly because they\u2019re very different animals with different content (digital to keep you up to date while you\u2019re working, and print to wake you up with lots of original content) and, even more importantly, there\u2019s a whopping great discount on the combination subscription. Payment by credit card will be secure and digital delivery instant,\u201d Bruce enthused in his column.<\/p>\n Many comments below his article were however, less than complimentary.<\/p>\n TaylorJ wrote<\/strong>: \u201cProblem with your paywall, Mr Bruce, is that your competitors aren’t doing so yet, where it comes to news stories. So if I can’t read your news without paying, I’ll just go to another business site. Moneyweb must be ecstatic about your decision.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n leonvz8 wrote<\/strong>: “Peter, For your sake, I hope you are doing the right thing. Myself, here in the UK, will not be paying a full subscription to access your e-version. I will get my news elsewhere. I have noted that the Telegraph tried it and has now quietly reverted back to free access. Your current offering does not entice me to pay for it. You should rather try the advertising model to increase your online revenues as you will haemorrhage online readers and once they are gone, they are gone.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Curmudgeon wrote<\/strong>: “I don’t have a problem with having to pay for access, and enjoy the publication as it contains high quality material. However, the price is, for me, way out of line at R800 for three months for Business Day only, and excluding FM. By way of comparison, my subscription to The Times and Sunday Times of London e-editions sets me back approximately R120 per month, obviously depending upon the exchange rate.<\/p>\n “Sorry Business Day. At well over double, I don’t see it as reasonably priced or value for money.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Former editor of the\u00a0Mail & Guardian<\/a>,\u00a0Anton Harber<\/a>\u00a0recently said that the shift in South African media to put more online news behind a paywall as \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n At the start of April,\u00a0Afrikaans publications Beeld, Volksblad and Die Burger \u2013 functioning under the\u00a0Naspers<\/a>\u00a0brand \u2013 announced their intention to adopt a digital first method of operation, breaking news online, and charging a fee for accessing content.<\/p>\n In a similar move, the Sunday Times<\/a> did away with its free online content model\u00a0in June 2012 already.<\/p>\n Paywalls in SA inevitable: expert<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Times Media confirms BDFM takeover<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Paying for online news<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Afrikaans news websites go paywall<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Koos Bekker wades into print vs online debate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Paywall and digital media<\/h3>\n