Schaffhausen News: Good experience with payment platform
Earlier this year, the Schaffhauser Nachrichten became the first media company in Switzerland to take the plunge and introduce a paywall for its website. According to the company, the experience over the first three months has been positive.
Three months after the launch, 20 people have signed up for an online subscription to the Schaffhausen News (SN) decided to do so. This gives these subscribers access to all SN articles and the latest daily agency news for the price of CHF 299 per year. All others who visit the SN website without an online subscription are referred to the subscription service with every click.
Publisher Norbert Neininger told the news agency SDA on Tuesday that he was satisfied with the number of 20 subscribers. The goal of the changeover was not to find as many new online subscribers as possible, he said. "We just wanted to prevent our articles from being read for free."
Disadvantaged because of free online readers
He now often receives feedback from subscribers who appreciate that they are no longer disadvantaged compared to free online readers. Many, he says, did not appreciate the fact that they had paid 354 francs for a print subscription and that the articles were posted on the Internet for free on the same day.
Whether this model will prove itself in the long term remains to be seen, Neininger added. One negative side effect is that the number of hits on the website has dropped by 30 percent. This also applies to the online presence of Radio Munot, which also belongs to the media company Meier + Cie.
iPhone application and digital Sunday edition
The small publisher from northern Switzerland is breaking new ground in electronic media with other projects as well: In the coming weeks, SN will launch a paid iPhone application. Like the online presence, this app will be free for subscribers and "rather expensive" for everyone else.
According to Neininger, the exact price has not yet been determined. In July of this year, the people of Schaffhausen will venture into the next project: SN will launch a digital Sunday edition exclusively for iPad and iPhone.
Tamedia: Paid iPad application before the end of the year
The Tamedia media group is also thinking about which content should be free in the future and which should cost something. As a spokesperson explained, Tamedia will not make a black-and-white decision on this issue. It is clear that tagesanzeiger.ch/newsnetz will remain free of charge because it is successful.
The situation is different for iPad applications which are to be launched on the market before the end of 2011: Tamedia plans to charge for certain offerings - especially those that are closer to the printed newspaper in terms of content. To ensure that traditional Tages-Anzeiger subscribers do not feel left out, Tamedia also wants to reduce the number of print stories that are posted free of charge on tagesanzeiger.ch/newsnetz on the same day.
NZZ: Buy individual articles
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung also believes in paid content. "I assume that we will introduce this," Editor-in-Chief Markus Spillmann told the Austrian newspaper Der Standard last week. Daily news, such as from agencies, will remain free in the future, said Peter Hogenkamp, head of digital media, in response to an inquiry from SDA. It is currently being clarified whether and how further content will be offered for a fee.
Like Tamedia, the NZZ is not backing a so-called paywall, i.e. a wall to paid offers. It is currently examining a model in which readers could buy individual texts depending on their interests. (SDA)
Schaffhauser Nachrichten: Online presence becomes multimedia and fee-based
