The publisher of The Scotsman newspaper, Johnston Press, is reported to be considering erecting a pay wall.According to a report on Holdthefrontpage Johnston Press, which also owns The Yorkshire Post and Lancashire Evening Post, is to introduce paid-for access to some of its local websites from next week.If this is true this could open the floodgates. Johnston Press is a regional newspaper powerhouse in the UK. It owns 18 daily newspapers and 300 weekly papers. Apparently it is considering putting the pay wall around those weeklies. It is an interesting place to start an experiment. Most of the talk has been focused on dailies, but if you start with weeklies dailies could well follow suit. Erecting a pay wall around local content could be a game changer as rivals would look to follow -- and my guess would be quickly.
Although my guess is it would only make this move in markets where it has the upper hand. In more competitive local markets this might not happen. So I don't see a unilateral move; more market by market.An interesting question arises as to whether this could also involve pulling content from Google? Following the two US news groups, MediaNews Group and A.H Belo, saying they are considering following News Corporation there is a groundswell of change taking place here.Holdthefrontpage has few details other than "pay walls are to be introduced on a selection of Johnston Press-owned weekly newspaper websites from Monday". It adds that managers have told staff that JP intends to roll-out the paid-for model across the company in-line with the industry moves.
PaidContent makes a good point and questions as to whether Johnston Press "is relying on the 'brand' value of its local newspapers too much here and hoping that a town’s collective memory of reading a title for generations will translate into revenue online". Good question and I guess we will know the answer soon enough.
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Today is a big day. Not only is it some huge online shopping day, but regional newspaper firm Johnston
Gordon Macmillan
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