Another industry veteran has added his voice to the warnings about constructing subscription firewalls around editorial content --- so-called paywalls.
Only, Steve Yelvington has taken the emotion into intellectual and analytical realms by evaluating the patterns of traffic for sites and what might be the implications for those who experiment with charging for content.
He concludes that people are coming to sites for a reason, but often only one reason, and then leaving and not often coming back. Building a business on that basis is a high-risk enterprise.
Having said that, he's not ruling it out. There are just several questions, including how much content should be free before the fees kick in.
"What should be the threshold? How price-sensitive is that group on the right side? Can you get significant reader revenue from that group without damaging your advertising business? Nobody knows, really, and surveys aren't likely to tell you."
Only, Steve Yelvington has taken the emotion into intellectual and analytical realms by evaluating the patterns of traffic for sites and what might be the implications for those who experiment with charging for content.
He concludes that people are coming to sites for a reason, but often only one reason, and then leaving and not often coming back. Building a business on that basis is a high-risk enterprise.
Having said that, he's not ruling it out. There are just several questions, including how much content should be free before the fees kick in.
"What should be the threshold? How price-sensitive is that group on the right side? Can you get significant reader revenue from that group without damaging your advertising business? Nobody knows, really, and surveys aren't likely to tell you."
