WaPo Exec.: “Wait And See” Before Pay Walls

Photo courtesy of
‘Irony’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

For District residents who spend a lot of the day in front of computers, refreshing news sites or even just clicking the occasional link from a friend, an open way to get to content on local newspaper sites is pretty crucial. If you are one of those people, you are likely wondering if it will stay that way forever here in D.C., especially since other major newspapers are either planning or have already built subscription models that will impact how and at what cost we can have access.

Of course, given the prestige of the Washington Post in the journalism community, there are lots of people interested more than just cube dwellers about what its business plains entail in this regard. The answer? To be determined (and not in the Albritton kind of way). Speaking to a collection of student journalists from the Harvard Crimson over the weekend, Washington Post Co. Vice Chairman Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr. said the paper would “watch and see what happens before we jump into something like [the New York Times’ upcoming metered model].”

Jones did mention that something is likely in the works, but there is at least a little bit of time before we know for sure what will happen to the news we get from WashingtonPost.com.

Dave Levy is a PR guy by day, a media researcher on the side and a self-proclaimed geek. He blogs often about how traditional media adapts – or tries to adapt – to the growing digital media world at State of the Fourth Estate. You can follow Dave on Twitter for various updates about everything from sports from his previous home in Boston to eccentric and obscure pop culture references. Read why Dave loves D.C.

2 thoughts on “WaPo Exec.: “Wait And See” Before Pay Walls

  1. I would think about paying but only if it was a small price and the stories that I was paying for were original, interesting, and in-depth pieces.

    Again though, the price needs to start off low and not some high price that will scare off many people considering it

    People are used to free so make it basically free and move up if it becomes popular

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