Politico, the media organization that covers Washington in minute detail, said Thursday that it would start experimenting with a pay wall on its Web site.
“Starting this week, we are going to test a metered system for subscriptions in a half-dozen states and internationally,” the leaders of the organization told their staff in a memo that was also posted online and signed by John F. Harris, the editor in chief, Jim VandeHei, the executive editor, and Kim Kingsley, the chief operations officer.
The letter emphasized that though the change was “small” and “experimental,” it “represents a shift in our thinking.” Notably, however, the site will not be testing a pay wall in Washington, the home of Politico’s core readers.
“It’s something we do not have to do but want to do to get a better feel for readers’ willingness to pay for our journalism,” the letter explained. “We believe that every successful media company will ultimately charge for its content.”
Until now, Politico has thrived by being endlessly available for those obsessed enough to want to be updated by every tic in the body politic. But while Politico started as a Web site, it has evolved to deliver a print version with advertising and a premium service for subscribers. The question now is how hardcore Internet fans of the site will feel about joining the group that pays.
Politico said it was testing the waters now, ahead of what they had planned only a few months earlier, because of the success of pay walls at other news organizations. Pay walls, once considered anathema to online journalism, are now being embraced by more newspapers and even smaller operations like The Dish blog, run by Andrew Sullivan, as revenue from Web advertising continues to sputter.
“It is increasingly clear that readers are more willing than we once thought to pay for content they value and enjoy,” the Politico memo said.
Politico said that it was testing the wall in smaller states spread across the country and at different price for at least six months and then would study the results.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/business/media/politico-to-test-a-pay-wall-with-some-readers-of-its-site.html?partner=rss&emc=rss