McClatchy dismisses paywalls

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on February 9, 2010 at 4:30 PM

McClatchy Co. will not put up paywalls, and is instead "comfortable" with an ad-supported online model, CEO Gary Pruitt announced today, MediaPost reported.

However, the U.S. newspaper publisher will continue experimenting, offering paid content relating to state government news (which will target wealthy lobbyists) at its newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina, for example.

"If you can hold on to your audience, you can be leading local media provider in your market, even with the proliferation and fragmentation of the entire media landscape," Pruitt said at Borrell Associates' Local Online Advertising Conference, according to paidContent. "The percent of internet-only ad dollars will grow because of self-serve vehicles and classifieds. We don't need it to be 50/50 for us to have the same cash flow. Digital has a higher profit margin because of the lower costs from not having to print and distribute it compared to print."

McClatchy's newspapers include the Kansas City Star and the Miami Herald.

Pruitt also said the company is happy to maintain arrangements with Google and Yahoo, traffic from which make up 20 percent of McClatchy's Web site traffic, according to Editor & Publisher. "To disengage is to risk marginalisation," he said.

Image: Gary Pruitt, AP Images