Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Free For All

The creators of the top media companies’ websites are increasingly removing the need to subscribe to their services in favour of paying for the sites via online advertising. Many of the most prominent ‘old media’ companies, whose websites previously required subscriptions, are now changing to a model which combines free public access with online advertising revenue. CNN is just the latest in a long line of companies, such as The Economist and The Wall Street Journal to have launched a free version of their website, although many of these companies are still intending to combine the free model with certain paid-for add-ons. These publishers are now hoping that the introduction of a free website will increase traffic to their websites, whilst still maintaining revenue through advertising and getting visitors to sign-up for additional services. CNN has had an online existence since 1995 with their subscription-based website CNN Pipeline, although sources suggest that this was never very popular. However, in contrast The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has always had a successful paid-for website, the most prosperous in its field, with 93,000 subscribers, 33% of which also receive the paper version of the financial news publisher. Now with the launch of a free website, the company is still keen to maintain its subscriptions to content, so is focusing on offer extra paid-for content alongside its free articles. This is a similar stance being taken by The Economist who are also seeking to entice online readers in to becoming subscribers to the print version of the magazine, or by charging them to join online forums. This seems to be the strategy most media websites are taking, such as the magazine division at Emap which owns more than seventy titles including FHM , Closer , Grazia and Today’s Golfer . They believe that they can offer free content alongside advertising revenue, as well as paid-for content such as diet planning services and tee-time booking services. These hybrid models seem to be the future of online media websites, offering something for both the consumer and the company.

Source: Guardian