As the mainstream media is
getting more prevalent the media giants are struggling to keep their profits and
readers loyal. More free media is now available online and the ”free
generation” born in the late 80´s and early 90´s does not like to pay for media
because it is available for free online. This is very similar to what happened
to the music industry and movie industry, when music or movies are available
for free online, why buy? Creating services cheap is a solution for the music
industry (i.e Spotify) and the movie industry has Netflix.
This behavior the ”free
generation” has when it comes to pay for products also made a dent in the
newspaper publishers’ wallets. Also when advertisers have flocked to cheaper
websites like Google and Facebook starting a Paywall service is a smart idea to
learn and teach the consumers that news is not free. They need to change the consumer’s
behavior in order to survive in today’s touch and competitive mainstream media.
But if they charge too much it will probably scare off subscribers and I think
that is what happened to The San Francisco Chronicles online service.
Business Week: The Year of Paywall
