Friday, February 07, 2014

CJR: 'Gannett’s print-focused paywalls flounder'

"The issue is one that will particularly affect newspapers like Gannett’s that have leaned on large print price increases as part of their paywall strategies," writes Ryan Chittum in a new Columbia Journalism Review story. "For lower-quality publishers like Gannett, which has squeezed profits out of its newspapers for decades, the paywall money has been in print, not digital."

Earlier: Fourth-quarter report hints at looming paywall problem.

3 comments:

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  3. The paywall scam has been just that. I saw it close up. While everyone focused on the in teased print rates that's not how they really drove the revenue. It was an accounting trick. During the launch they changed the way discount expense was accounted for. This allowed the company to raise the revenue and then just increase expense. The net was the same but most properties saw their revenue nearly double. What is more troubling is the SEC never took a close look at top management standing in front if Wall Street patting themselves on the back for a successful roll out. Always was my opinion this led to inflated stock prices

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