Digital Pulp Blog

Our digital publishing clients are continually looking for new and better ways to monetize their content. Suggestions range from adding advertising to offering content up for syndication to 3rd parties for a fee. The most basic options are always discussed… do we add registration or even a paywall?

This is a big decision and should be driven by data. But few publishers who have made the leap from free to pay record or release the impact on their business. Until now. The UK Times not only made the switch but is publishing their experiment and the effects of this decision on traffic and revenue.

It’s still early but here’s an excerpt of where they are from Experian:

So, its still early days, but the conclusion so far seems to be this: since it forced users to register in order to view its content, the Times has lost market share. However, this decline has clearly not been catastrophic and none of the paper’s rivals has particularly benefitted. Yet. The real test will come when people actually have to pay rather than simply register to view the Times’ content. When that happens we will of course provide some more analysis, so keep an eye on the blog and our Twitter feed for updates.

Read more at: Times paywall: initial data and analysis