The Columbia Daily Tribune’s online readership has dropped about 25 percent since the implementation of its online paywall Dec. 1, 2010, said Henry Waters III, publisher and editor of the publication.
The first 10 stories a month are free to view, but after that, online readers are required to pay for a subscription to access additional content. Waters said he expected the 25 percent drop in online pageviews.
“When you start charging, it always goes down,” Waters said of the Tribune’s drop in online readership. “We’re not disappointed on that, because the people that are still looking are still interested.”
Waters said the Tribune has about 2,000 readers paying in some form or another for content but that the exact numbers are hard to tell because some online subscription fees for readers also subscribing to the print edition are not due yet.
Despite the drop-off in online readership, Waters said he is still pleased with the move to charge for online content.
“We’re very pleased,” Waters said. “For one thing, we just can’t and don’t believe we should continue to provide expensive content and give it away.”
Waters said negative reader feedback over the paywall has died down since the beginning of its implementation. He said readers have mostly accepted the decision.
“Most of the comment was when we first announced it, they said, ‘Of course we understand this’,'” Waters said.
Columbia Missourian Executive Editor Tom Warhover said he initially had no idea if more readers would move over to the Missourian when the Tribune started charging for online content. No statistics on the Missourian’s online readership were available, but Warhover said the publication has seen an increase in online readership in the last three months.
“There was kind of a core group, who, with the announcement of the Trib, said they were going to jump over to the Missourian and did,” Warhover said.
He also said the Missourian has no plans to charge for online content, aside from launching Kachingle, a type of online tip jar where readers can contribute money.
