Paid Content Strategies For News Websites: An Empirical Study Of British Newspapers' Online Business Models

Abstract

Qualitative interviews with editors and executives at UK national and regional newspapers revealed experimentation with online business models. All of the selected web publications offered their most popular news content for free in an attempt to maximize traffic. Although advertising was the principal source of revenue, each charged for some content�usually that which was unique to the newspaper brand. Online content charging generated extra revenue, but there was evidence it was also being implemented in an attempt to protect print circulations. The study revealed widespread optimism about future revenue streams including the provision of content to mobile devices, and the development of novel online news products. This record was migrated from the OpenDepot repository service in June, 2017 before shutting down.