{"id":610,"date":"2013-04-05T11:29:41","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T18:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=610"},"modified":"2013-04-05T11:29:41","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T18:29:41","slug":"paywalls-at-newspapers-and-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/paywalls-at-newspapers-and-museums\/","title":{"rendered":"Paywalls at Newspapers and Museums"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"is<\/a>Felix Salmon investigates how newspaper paywalls are evolving<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In the early days of paywalls, some content was free, while other content you needed to pay for; the meter, in theory, replaced that system with one where the determination as to whether an article was free or not was a function of how many other articles the reader had read, rather than being a function of the content of the article itself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But this is a bit simplistic:<\/p>\n

\u00a0[I]t\u2019s a mistake \u2014 at least from a purely financial perspective \u2014 to treat all readers equally. Some readers have a much greater propensity to pay than others; ideally, you want to extract a lot of money from those readers, while also allowing the vast majority of your visitors \u2014 the ones who will never pay you anything \u2014 to still consume your content and view the associated ads.<\/p>\n

For instance, it\u2019s often easier to persuade people to subscribe to sports content than to entertainment content, even as it\u2019s easier to sell ads against entertainment content than it is against sports content. So it does make sense to keep entertainment free, and put some kind of paywall around sports.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He adds:<\/p>\n

\u00a0[I]t seems to be a good idea to offer a range of subscription lengths, priced so that there\u2019s a strong incentive to go for the longer-dated annual subscription, even if again that means a substantially lower rate on a per-month basis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all that hard to tell who\u2019s likely to be willing to subscribe, and who isn\u2019t. Print subscribers, for instance, are much more likely to be willing to pay for a digital subscription than a reader who doesn\u2019t already pay for the print version. And people who visit frequently, and who read a lot of local news, or sports news, are also more likely to subscribe.<\/p>\n

In general, the trick is to get as many subscribers as you can \u2014 because once a person subscribes, they generally turn out to be surprisingly loyal and price-inelastic. You can keep on charging their credit card, even at steadily-rising rates, and they\u2019re not going to unsubscribe. And then, for the 90% of readers who don\u2019t<\/em> subscribe, it\u2019s a good idea to find content for them, too. The paywall shouldn\u2019t just be a \u201cpay here or get nothing\u201d option: the \u201cno thanks\u201d button should take you to valuable free content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What lessons can we draw from this? Many museums follow something akin to the original newspaper paywall model: visit the general collection of the museum for free (or for a low price – yes, I still contend it’s a low price<\/a>), and pay extra for the special exhibition, unless you are a member (subscriber). I can visit the Dallas Museum of Art for free<\/a>, but will pay $16 if I want to see Cindy Sherman<\/a>. And if that’s the model of audience willingness-to-pay, then museums are incentivized to have lots of special exhibitions, as Blake Gopnik recently lamented<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is this the only model we have, then? Or are there other possibilities? Newspapers have some<\/em> common features with museums (bear with me for the sake of argument!): a large collection of items is presented for which different audiences have different interests and different willingness-to-pay, some content that is quite unique and some that is similar to what could be seen elsewhere, some customers who are occassional visitors and some who are regulars, with the regulars likely to build significant loyalty to the institution (and often to become uneasy with change in the institution). In each case, there has to be something<\/em> that makes subscription\/membership worthwhile – for the most part at museums it is general admission (if there is in fact a general admission fee in the first place) and special exhibitions. But are we limited to that simple dichotomy? Does this model place too much emphasis and reliance on special exhibitions?<\/p>\n

A bleg: please\u00a0let me know of any museums that have adopted a model that breaks from the norm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Felix Salmon investigates how newspaper paywalls are evolving: In the early days of paywalls, some content was free, while other content you needed to pay for; the meter, in theory, replaced that system with one where the determination as to whether an article was free or not was a function of how many other articles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[15,35],"class_list":{"0":"post-610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-issues","7":"tag-museums","8":"tag-price-discrimination","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-9Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":725,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/strategic-gaps-in-the-paywall\/","url_meta":{"origin":610,"position":0},"title":"Strategic gaps in the paywall","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"At Slate, Matt Yglesias reports that advertising revenues are down, but subscription revenues are up, at the New York Times: I've been skeptical about digital subscription models for a long time, but I'm turning into a believer. A key change has been the development of technological means of making the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"paywall? what paywall?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/cookies-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2024,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/04\/pricing-for-the-sensible-arts-consumer\/","url_meta":{"origin":610,"position":1},"title":"Pricing for the sensible arts consumer","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At flux[x] Tom Whitwell has a very interesting read on pricing, and the psychology behind how we make choices when confronted with varying sets of prices. I highly recommend it. He uses examples ranging from newspaper paywalls, Netflix and phone packages, wine, and experimental evidence regarding beer. In short: \"Prices\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ah to be young again","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/mateus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/02\/museums-amusement-parks-and-cable-tv\/","url_meta":{"origin":610,"position":2},"title":"Museums, Amusement Parks and Cable TV","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Should museums charge visitors according to the length of their visit? \u00a0In a recent paper Bruno Frey and Lasse Steiner argue they should. We pay per hour when we park our cars, so why not when we go to view art? This question came to mind during the recent flare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bundling\"","block_context":{"text":"bundling","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/tag\/bundling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Zero marginal cost, you say?\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Family_watching_television_1958-300x279.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2926,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/08\/museums-are-not-expensive-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":610,"position":3},"title":"Museums are not expensive","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"New Yorkers who are interested in seeing the film Barbie at the local multiplex will pay $25.49 per ticket. If, on the same weekend, they wish to also see Oppenheimer, as I read, in about one hundred and forty-seven news reports, people were doing, then we are up to $51.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1425,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/07\/strategic-pricing-for-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":610,"position":4},"title":"Strategic pricing for the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pleased to say my book on pricing in the arts has been released - Amazon link here, and Routledge link (including for ordering e-inspection copies) here. 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