Last but not least: The agony of the voluntary pay choice

From now on, users of Taz.de will be greeted with a paywall. With two different layer motifs "stay free" on the homepage and "taz paywall" at article level, Taz is once again focusing on the principle of voluntary payment for online articles. Taz.de writes this on its own Blog. The taz introduced voluntary payment back in 2011. And payments have already been made. Since then, small amounts totaling 70,000 euros have been collected. Last month alone, readers voluntarily paid almost 4,000 euros, writes Taz.de on its blog. More than half of this came via regular direct debits. Nina Schoenian, Head of Digital, says: "It's more of a pay choice. The amount of voluntary contributions is increasing slightly from month to month, and the campaign is now intended to increase the total number of people willing to pay."

Although the paywall that has now been introduced is still a pay choice, it is more like a begging choice. This is because the user has to decide whether they want to pay for the article before they have had time to read it. If the user chooses "Yes", there are six ways to pay for the online content - Paypal, mobile payment, credit card, bank transfer, direct debit or standing order. If "No" is selected, the window with the payment request closes again - the article can still be read free of charge.

And yet, the campaign doesn't seem to be making much of an impression on Taz readers. On the one hand, readers are annoyed that the question: "Is this article worth anything to you?" appears after just a few seconds. So there is no time for an honest answer. On the other hand, subscribers in particular are not exactly happy that they have to answer the question with "No", even though they are already paying for the Taz. The idea of a voluntary pay-wall has therefore become a pay-question. (uma)