TNTJ September: making Generation Y pay
What did you pay for today? Possibly your coffee, probably your public transport. But most of us here at TNTJ probably didn’t pay for a newspaper. We’re a generation addicted to a range of news sources, from the BBC News website through to the Huffington Post, via the Guardian etc on the way. We get free music and TV from Spotify and BBC iPlayer – and other, less legal, outlets.
This month we’re going for a discussion topic that is weighing heavily on the minds of all those in the media: will Generation Y pay for content? And should we have to?
Coming up with a short-term solution to today’s financial woes is one thing, but how can news organisations engage Generation Y so that they continue to be viable in the long term?
In July the Guardian showed that the Times’ online audience had fallen by almost 90% three weeks after it went behind a paywall. My fellow students here in New York are shuddering as January 2011 looms – the date by which we will no longer be able to browse the New York Times website for free. According to CJR’s Ryan Chittum, an NYT paywall would be a substantial profit-making exercise even if the website lost most of its visitors. Perhaps that’s true. But which readers abandon the paper as a result?
I haven’t seen any detailed breakdown of the figures, but I’m going to guess a large fraction of the deserters are under the age of 30. I haven’t looked at the Times since I was first faced with that “available exclusively by subscription” page.
Yet as a journalist myself I feel a pang of guilt every time I bemoan a new paywall. I’ve seen newsroom layoffs and cuts in content and, of course, I want my work to be worth something. Can news organisations somehow persuade the young to give up their freebie habit and fork out for content? And, if not, is there any way they can engage us “millennials” and still make money?
As Arthur Sulzberger, the NYT company chairman and publisher, put it: “We can’t get this halfway right or three-quarters of the way right. We have to get this really, really right.” Here’s your chance to solve the problems of the world’s media in one fell swoop. Well, maybe we shouldn’t get above ourselves.
We’ve had some great responses to August’s debate, so if you’re registered on TNTJ please don’t hesitate to post your thoughts. And if you haven’t yet registered, you can do that here.
If you have any thoughts on TNTJ, or possible discussion topics for future months, please do let us know at @TNTJ.
August 31st, 2010 at 11:28 am
Paywalls are good. It’s either that or make advertisers pay more. BUT you can’t have one paper using a paywall and the other having everything for free. It needs to be a collaborative effort.
I think newspapers need to make the paywall an option. For free users pump up the advertising like crazy and get them to pay more. Use pop-ups and all the annoying stuff. Also leave out some articles and editorials that would only be available behind the wall. Then give the option of having less ads but with a paywall. But again this has to be a collaborative effort. All the major newspapers in a country need to come together and figure it out together. Otherwise journalism will become seriously endangered of dying out.
August 31st, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Hi Julien, thanks for commenting. Why don’t you write a post for us about your point of view? You can sign up here to get posting: http://www.journalism.co.uk/young-journalists/wp-login.php?action=register
September 1st, 2010 at 1:42 pm
I agree with jurat here.
If newspapers open up a little of their content so news remains accessible, then the rest of the content is pay-walled then the more serious readers will no have no issues in paying, and those who just want a browse can also do that.
September 13th, 2010 at 10:07 am
[...] a very interesting question we’ve been asked to cover in this month’s topic, and not least because it’s one the entire industry is trying to get its head around. [...]