Image via WikipediaTechCrunch: The Times UK Lost 4 Million Readers To Its Paywall Experiment: saw its online readership decline by 4 million unique visitors a month worldwide to 2.4 million, or a 62 percent drop. Pageviews fell off an even steeper cliff, plummeting 90 percent from an estimated 41 million in May, 2010 to 4 million in September, 2010. People did what you’d expect them to do when faced with a paywall at a news site. They said, “No, thanks” and clicked away to another site.Paywalls make no sense at all. The internet is a global medium. People anywhere should be able to come over to your site. Just like net neutrality is so basic to what the internet is all about, the idea of paywalls runs counter.
I am for making money. But paywalls are old economy ways trying to climb onto the new economy bandwagon. Instead I am excited about the hundred plus startups that are trying to take online advertising to a whole new level. That I am for.
You should be able to make money without taking away from what the internet is all about. You should be able to make more money.
You go behind a paywall, you lose readers. What if you lose them forever? What if they forget you? What if they don't come back even if you get rid of the unwise paywall later on?
Online there are too many alternatives. There are too many news sources. There are too many news aggregators.
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