Tribune To Raise Paywall Nov. 1
By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 18, 2012 5:45PM
The Tribune has been on a fast track to setting up an online paywall from the moment they launched their revamped website a few months back. That paywall becomes a reality Nov. 1, at a cost of $14.99 per month to readers who don't subscribe to the print edition.
Seven-day subscribers to the print version will get free access to the Trib's website, while those who subscribe to less days of the print concern (e.g. the Sunday Trib) can add a digital subscription for $2 more.
Tribune vice president for digital content Bill Adee explained the move in a memo to employees.
"After launching the new chicagotribune.com in June, we spent the ensuing weeks studying the digital habits of our consumers through their free online registration and direct feedback. Based on that data, along with price testing, we have put together what we call the digitalPLUS package."
Readers who registered with the Tribune's website will receive five free views of premium content before they receive a limit notification. Premium content, described as investigative reporting, articles from The Economist, reviews and columns, will be marked with a blue plus logo. Whether the paywall will be successful is another matter. Adee wrote in the memo 230,000 users registered with the Tribune's website since June 28. Assuming most of those users aren't subscribers to the print version, that's a lot of potential revenue waiting to be collected.