Sun-Times To Charge For Some Web Content

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 25, 2009 5:20PM

With new ownership now in place for the Sun-Times, the focus now turns to making money. Speaking yesterday to the City Club of Chicago at a luncheon, Sun-Times Media CEO Jeremy Halbreich outlined several changes that are in store for the company in an effort to turn things around financially speaking. According to Crain's:

Among those changes will be pay walls for portions of the Web site with exclusive content, tie-ups with technology firms that can distribute and charge for the content more efficiently than Sun-Times, and potential increases in subscription prices...

Halbreich admitted a pay wall “will not be a panacea," but that, coupled with a few other tweaks, may help generate millions in additional revenue. He added that the company has had some success in small experiments with paying for online content and that there have been some chatter with Steve Brill, whose company - Journalism Online, LLC - is looking to help publishers implement a successful pay model for the web. Still, it remains to be seen if Brill's plan can be successful (a la the Wall Street Journal) or if it will come to the same fate as The New York Times Select.