Gannett: Pay Up

Did we all really believe FLORIDA TODAY would embrace the new business model on its own?

As reported by Forbes, publisher Gannett made the decision for all its newspapers, including the Brevard daily. USA Today will remain free.

(...)

The vogue for digital paywalls sweeping the news business has made it all the way to the top: Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, is planning to switch over all of its 80 community newspapers to a paid model by the end of the year, it announced during an investor day held in Manhattan Wednesday.

“We will begin to restrict some access to non-subscribers,” said Bob Dickey, president of community publishing. The model is similar to the metered system adopted by The New York Times a year ago, in which online readers are able to view a limited number of pages for free each month. That quota will be between five and 15 articles, depending on the paper, said Dickey. Six Gannett papers already have a digital pay regimen in place.

(...)

... Gannett projects its new paid content initiative will contribute to a 25% increase in annual subscription revenues companywide. That in turn will swell earnings by $100 million per year.

Read more about the Gannett paywalls here.