Dow Jones local papers follow others in raising paywalls

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 14, 2010 at 3:33 PM

Two more newspapers under the Dow Jones Media Local Group umbrella began charging for online content this week. Both the Standard Times and the Record put up paywalls on Tuesday, both papers announced.

"The Record is one of the first daily newspapers to establish a "pay wall" for its Web site. But virtually every newspaper company and many individual newspapers are working on similar models. They will be common before long," wrote Mike Klocke, the editor of the Stockton, California Record.

The Standard-Times, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, also began charging for its Web site, SouthCoastToday.com. Weekly all-access will be $4.60 per week, according to the paper's site.

German publisher Axel Springer began charging for some of its online newspapers last month, while the Economist introduced a paywall for its print edition content list and entertainment trade publication Variety began charging for online content, the Economist reported. The New York Times is pondering a similar move, according to a statement.

Two prominent examples of the success of the paywall system are the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, wherein the former lets users view few articles each month before asking for a subscription fee, and the latter charges mostly for business and finance news. The FT says revenues from digital subscribers rose by more than 30 percent last year and the Wall Street Journal was the only big American newspaper to report a gain in circulation last year with the help of its online paid subscribers, according to the Economist.