Premium content: What the Waco Tribune-Herald has learned so far
A Texas newspaper organization, Waco Tribune-Herald, has found a method of online payment that may not be perfect, but that has shown benefits. With the creation of the implemented pay wall, the Tribune-Herald has seen an increase in print subscribers. Perhaps this is because they have called the project OnlinePlus, and for $15.45 a month, you can get both the print and online-subscription, where you would be paying $9.95 for the online-only.
What's under the Waco Tribune-Herald's pay wall? Their most wanted local news. Because the newspaper is interested in social media marketing, they keep links to their wire and AP stories available for free (along with obituaries) while hiding the locally written stories you can't find anywhere else.
The Waco-Tribune Herald has learned from other newspapers mistakes regarding pay walls and have tried to implement what they believe to be the most efficient content behind their pay walls. Though their website readership dropped dramatically, they have also noticed that their print circulation has increased by 3%.
Editor Carlos Sanchez encourages other newspapers to do the same, "Traffic would drop, but would you rather have one million page views that are free or 100,000 page views that are bringing in revenue?"
I think that his idea of marketing the online subscription as an OnlinePlus rather than just another thing to pay for, is much more innovative and attention-getting than not including it in the same pay fee. I also think that choosing to hide the local news is important, because many times, that is what people are most interested in reading about and cannot find anywhere else.
-Abbey and Matt
Knight Digital Media Center Blog
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