NZZ pulls up holey paywall

Actually, only 20 articles per month, all overview pages and service content are still free on Nzz.ch. Users must register for 10 articles or more, and ten articles later they must also pay to read them. However, the payment barrier has holes, which the NZZ deliberately accepts. Anyone who is linked to Nzz.ch from a social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter or from a search engine such as Google reads for free - even if there have already been more than 20 texts.

These external accesses are not counted in the 20-article quota, said Peter Hogenkamp, Head of Digital Media at the NZZ Media Group, in response to an inquiry from the news agency SDA: "But that's intentional." He said the intention was for the NZZ to be present on these platforms and to get a discussion going on the texts. "Whoever then comes to us should not get stuck in the paywall," he said. Hogenkamp hopes, of course, that these casual readers will become subscribers sooner or later. But they certainly won't all be persuaded to pay for content, Hogenkamp continued: "That would be completely illusory." He is convinced that a hermetically sealed paywall would drive readers away.

Role model New York Times

The model for the NZZ paywall, which is intentionally incomplete, is the so-called metered model, as also operated by the New York Times. This system was developed there after the completely sealed paywall had a negative effect on readership figures. The price for the new NZZ digital subscription is 428 francs per year, the media group announced Wednesday. That's about a third less than for the print subscription, which also gives users unlimited access to the NZZ portal. The media company Tamedia is also looking into a payment system for its Newsnet. At the online portal of the free paper 20 Minuten, however, a paywall is not an issue. (SDA)