I’ve written a number of blog posts about how, in my opinion, The Times is missing a trick by making its paywall impermeable to social media or put another way how it is anti-social media.

I’ve written how its anti-social media paywall model was rejected by other parts of News Corp and how the Times and The New York Times compare (social media Vs anti-social media).

However, it has emerged that the News International-owned Times maybe about to change that policy and allow a little social media light in and its readers to share some articles. Read More »

UPDATE: News International has finally confirmed that the paid for archive website for The Sun, which appeared online earlier this week, is not part of an effort to charge UK consumers for historic content from The Sun and News of the World.

I blogged on Tuesday that this could be the case as on the surface that is what it looked like. However, while the site is still there, it is said to be connected to News Corporation’s Australian arm and syndication efforts, including The Australian which launched a metered paywall in October. So no tabloid paywall for the UK any time soon, at least as far as News International is concerned. Read More »

Over the past year publications including The Times, Sunday Times and The Economist have adopted paywall business models that require readers to pay for online content.

Depending on who you speak to, it will either work or it won’t. As the debate rages on and publishers try figure out the best model for their business, the web infrastructure across the globe is improving and it is affecting online news distribution. Read More »

A week after The New York Times announced figures to that shows its paywall is working its longtime digital chief Martin Nisenholtz has announced his retirement.

Nisenholtz, a former ad man who spent 16 years at the paper, launched its paywall, as well as insisting that social media was crucial to its success, and leaves the paper in a strong place, but with issues to deal with. Read More »

Yesterday, I blogged on how The New York Times paywall was working as its digital subscriber numbers grow.

Today the Financial Times has issued an update on how its paywall is going from strength to strength and has broken through a significant barrier. Read More »

The New York Times put out a press release yesterday, the big headline of which was that it has recorded a slight rise in the print circulation of the paper’s Sunday edition, but the real story was that its total digital subscriptions are on the up. Read More »

I wrote earlier this year that News International was rethinking its anti-social media paywall policy with regards whether it would introduce a paywall for the Sun modelled on the one employed by The Times.

It had intially been reported that The Sun would follow in the footsteps of the News of the World, which saw its traffic plummet after its paywall went live, but that turned out to be the least of its problems. Read More »

So The Independent and The Independent on Sunday is to axe its overseas editions, as it looks to cuts its cost base. Is this a surprise? On the face of it, no. The Guardian did the same thing in the Summer.

Publishing newspapers overseas is massively expensive, but what’s interesting is that it might lead the paper to errecting a paywall for international readers. Read More »

This is a week in newspapers to remember. Yesterday Guardian News & Media announced a new strategy that it is calling “digital-first”. It is the strongest admission we have yet had that the newspaper industry knows that it is moving ahead to a future where print is receding in the rear view mirror.

Losses are mounting, the Guardian reported they hit £33m, more cuts need to be made, in the order of £25m says Brand Republic, and significantly an admission from editor Alan Rusbridger that readers no longer read newspapers in the same way, that leads to the question: why publish them in the same way? Read More »

Interesting report on Journalism UK about News International possibly rethinking its closed, anti-social media or iron curtain, approach to its paywall. The Sun had been due to follow same paywall model employed by The Times and the News of the World.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know I think this is the equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot. I mean, seriously, why do it? Why have a paywall that cuts you off from the social media conversation? Read More »