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Building a better paywall: strategies for monetizing news content

Summary:

The impact of digital technology has shattered long-established monopolies and ways of making money in the newspaper publishing industry. Today, publishers must find ways to subsidize content-creation costs directly, and this report examines a few different approaches, from more flexible paywalls to charging users directly for access and mimicking the business models of other industries, such as online gaming. Companies mentioned in this report include Ford, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

  1. Table of Contents
  2. Executive summary
  3. Introduction
  4. Economic challenges
    1. The end of CPMs
  5. Searching for a new model
    1. Market segmentation
  6. Paying for content
    1. Cash or credit?
    2. Music and video
    3. Beyond the bundle
    4. Getting beyond subscriptions
    5. Retail trade
    6. The audience-size paradox
    7. Other revenue streams
  7. Aggregation and investment
    1. New tools needed
    2. The investment case
  8. Conclusion and key takeaways
  9. About Paul Sweeting
  10. About GigaOM Pro
  11. Further reading