1、| 1 | Pay Models for Online News in the US and Europe: 2019 Update Authors: Felix M. Simon and Lucas Graves An early version of this factsheet contained one inaccurate coding that has consequences throughout. Introduction As legacy news revenues continue to decline, and with the lions share of digit
2、al advertising revenues claimed by large technology companies, pay models have become an increasingly important part of the business of digital news. Digital advertising remains a key source of income; as Newmans (2019) survey of news executives fi nds, 81% of respondents say that it is still the mo
3、st important revenue focus, followed by subscriptions (78%), native advertising (75%) and various other sources of revenue. Nevertheless, subscriptions are a key priority for the news industry going forward, with over half (52%) of the executives expecting this to be the main revenue focus in 2019.
4、In April 2017, RISJ analysed the adoption of three dominant forms of pay models freemium, metered paywalls, and hard paywalls across leading news organisations in six European markets: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom (Cornia et al. 2017). This factsheet off ers an upd
5、ate to our original analysis based on the same sample of news organisations, in order to understand how the landscape has developed over the last two years. We also expand the original sample to include data from the United States for 2017 and 2019, given its importance as both an early testing grou
6、nd for pay models in news and as a major media market. Overall Findings and Diff erences by Sector The analysis presented here is based on examining the online off erings of more than 200 leadings news organisations across the seven markets. (See detailed methodology and sample at the end of this fa
7、ctsheet.) As in 2017, we collected data from four broad categories of outlets: daily newspapers (up-market, tabloid/mid- market, business, and regional), weekly newspapers and news magazines, TV news (commercial and public service media), and digital-born news outlets. We sorted pay models into thre
8、e categories: hard paywalls, where no content is accessible for free at all; freemium models made up of a mix of free and premium content; and metered paywalls, which allow access to a limited number of free articles each month.1 Based on an examination of 212 of the most important news organisation
9、s in these seven countries, we fi nd that: 69% of the newspapers in our sample operate some kind of a pay model today, a small increase from 64.5% in 2017. Hard paywalls are extremely rare, with the landscape evenly divided between freemium models and metered paywalls (33% each). More than half of w
10、eekly newspapers and news magazines (57%) operate a pay model, down 5 F A C T S H E E T May 2019 1 There are, of course, various hybrid models in between. In the case of a combination of a metered model and premium content, we coded the off er as metered paywall. PAY MODELS FOR ONLINE NEWS IN THE US
11、 AND EUROPE: 2019 UPDATE | 2 | percentage points from 2017. Freemium models are the most widely used, followed by metered paywalls and hard paywalls. Just as in 2017, all broadcasters continue to offer free access to their digital news in 2019. This includes private sector broadcasters as well as pu
12、blic service media like the BBC in the UK or Yle in Finland. Almost all digital-born news outlets (94%) across the seven countries offer free access to their news. Mediapart in France and the Independent in the UK2 are the only digital-born/digital-only organisations in our sample that operate a pay
13、wall, up one from 2017. Looking only at those news organisations that operate a pay model, the average price for the cheapest available monthly subscription (without discounts) in 2019 is 14.06 (12.19), roughly similar to 2017. Prices range from as little as 2 (1.74) to 41.50 (36) a month. For compa
14、rison, the average price for a Netflix subscription across countries is 7.77 (6.73). (See Table 1.) We thus find that the trend identified two years ago persists in 2019, with newspapers across Europe and the US gradually moving away from digital news offered for free and supported primarily by disp
15、lay advertising. Some corners of the industry have moved even quicker: among regional newspapers in our sample, just over a quarter (27%) now offer free access to readers, down sharply from 36% in 2017. This shift is in line with other research (Cornia et al. 2016) showing that many newspapers and n
16、ews magazines are cultivating a wider range of revenue sources not just various pay models but also native advertising, e-commerce, events, etc. This shift is not mirrored across the rest of the industry, however. Overall, more than half of the news organisations in our sample 53% of the 212 outlets
17、 across seven countries continue to offer free access 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 31% 33% 33% 3% 43% 38% 14% 5% 100% 94% 3% 53% 3% 23% 21% 3% 0% 0% 0%0% NewspapersWeekly newspapers and news magazines TVDigital-bornTotal Free accessFreemiumMetered paywallHard paywall Figure 1. Pay models across media typ
18、es (all countries) 2 We consider the Independent a digital-only outlet, given that it first appeared in print and only later turned into an online-only outlet. PAY MODELS FOR ONLINE NEWS IN THE US AND EUROPE: 2019 UPDATE | 3 | to digital news. This includes digital-born news media (94%), most tabloi
19、d newspapers (73%), and all private sector broadcasters and public service media we examined. (See Figure 1 and Tables 24 for details.) The continued dominance of free access among digital-born outlets is especially noteworthy given the industry attention to a few organisations that are building the
20、ir business around paying members/ subscribers, such as Frances Mediapart or (beyond our sample) De Correspondent in the Netherlands and the US and Republik.ch in Switzerland (Nicholls et al. 2016). Country Differences The six European countries we cover represent a wide range of media systems, incl
21、uding countries with a history of strong private sector and public service media as well as countries with historically weaker private sector media and less well-funded and widely used public service media. The European markets also differ in terms of overall market size, levels of advertising expen
22、diture, and the degree of direct competition they face from international content. Meanwhile, the United States is by far the largest media market in the sample, marked by a strong, highly competitive private sector and relatively weak public service media. Comparing results across Finland, France,
23、Germany, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the US, we find interesting differences (see Figure 2 and Tables 4 and 5 for details): A majority of top newspapers and news weeklies in Finland, France, Germany, Poland, and the United States have adopted pay models. By contrast, in both Italy and the
24、 United Kingdom, most major newspapers and weeklies continue to offer free access to their digital news. These are very competitive markets where even leading titles may fear losing market share if they implement pay models. Monthly prices vary dramatically across titles and countries (see Figure 2)
25、. Looking specifically at newspapers and weeklies, Poland has the lowest average monthly price at 9.05 (7.84). The UK has the lowest percentage of newspapers and weeklies with pay models (33%) but the highest average monthly price at 17.45 (15.12), peaking at 41.50 (36) for the Financial Times. Pric
26、es vary by model. Metered models average at 15.46 (13.40) across all countries and range from 10.95 in the US to 19.75 in Germany. Freemium models are on average cheaper at 11.78 (10.21), running from 8.10 (7.02) in the UK to 14.49 (12.56) in France. The prices for content on websites with hard payw
27、alls vary the most, with average prices between 8.48 (7.35) per month in Poland and 35.83 (31.06) in the UK (see Table 1). Prices also vary by market orientation, with clear differences among business, up-market, regional, and tabloid papers. Business newspapers are unsurprisingly the most expensive
28、, with an average monthly price of 28.32 (24.55) across the seven countries. They are also the only category which consistently has had pay models in place in both 2017 and 2019. Finally, the United States has seen a sharper rise in paywalls than the EU. Some 48% of US outlets in our sample have a p
29、aywall, compared to 38% in 2017, a 10 percentage point increase in just two years. This increase stems exclusively from newspapers, of which 76% have a pay model in place in 2019, up 16 percentage points from 2017. During the same period, the number of paywalls across the sample of media from EU cou
30、ntries covered here has stayed nearly flat, rising just one percentage point to 46% in 2019. As in the original report, we found that the content and services offered vary as much as the pay models and prices themselves.3 For instance, many Finnish newspapers use a hybrid paywall model (a combinatio
31、n of a monthly page view limit and some premium content). The US is dominated by metered paywall solutions (see also Steffens 2018). While freemium models abound in Poland and are present across Europe, we did not find one instance in our sample in the US. Some news organisations include in their mi
32、nimum price offer only access to their news on the websites, whereas others opt to charge more and also offer other services (e.g. the digital version of the printed newspaper, mobile apps for subscribers, archive access, newsletters). It also has to be noted that news organisations that offer free
33、access might, in 3 For example, some subscription packages also offered access to a digital version of the printed newspaper or customised smartphone apps for subscribers. PAY MODELS FOR ONLINE NEWS IN THE US AND EUROPE: 2019 UPDATE | 4 | a few cases, ask for other forms of compensation. For instanc
34、e, both the UKs the Guardian and Germanys die tageszeitung (taz) offer readers the option to donate and to become voluntary supporters. Summary In many ways, 2018 has been a difficult year for legacy media companies, especially newspapers; print revenue has continued to decline with digital unable t
35、o make up the difference. In this climate, we are seeing a strategic split: as many publishers (particularly in complex and fragmented markets) continue to offer online news for free, much of the industry is making a renewed push to implement pay models as well as membership and donation models (New
36、man et al. 2018). As Newmans (2019) survey of news executives finds, subscription and membership is the key priority for the news industry going forward. Over half (52%) expect this to be the main revenue focus in 2019, compared with just 27% for display advertising, 8% for native advertising and 7%
37、 for donations. Recent surveys give reason to be cautiously optimistic about this approach. As the Digital News Report 2018 notes, the number of people paying for news is slowly growing and, across countries, the future likelihood to pay has increased amongst those who are not already paying (Newman
38、 et al. 2018). Yet this growth is, in most cases, still incremental and reader revenues, though growing as well, rarely make up for declining legacy revenues and an increasingly difficult digital advertising market. This outlook has not significantly changed since our last factsheet in 2017. Overall
39、, we can draw the following conclusions from these findings: Paywalls are likely here to stay. The trend identified two years ago persists in 2019, with newspapers and news magazines across Europe and the US moving away from digital news offered for free. However, growth in the US has significantly
40、outpaced growth in the EU. Nevertheless, fears about paywalls limiting the access to quality information with all the 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 PolandUSAverageItalyGermanyFranceFinlandUK 20172019 7.21 9.05 10.60 11.93 14.4214.09 14.2414.45 17.46 14.51 13.97 15.11 15.03 16.14 22.26 17.45 Figu
41、re 2. Average monthly price across countries (newspapers plus weekly newspapers and news magazines with pay model only) PAY MODELS FOR ONLINE NEWS IN THE US AND EUROPE: 2019 UPDATE | 5 | concomitant implications for democracy seem overblown for now. Hard paywalls are extremely rare, even among newsp
42、apers, and a majority of outlets overall (53%) remain free to access for users. Pay models are not evenly distributed across countries but tied to the individual circumstances of each market. Overall, freemium and metered approaches are dominant, with hard paywalls only used by a small minority. In
43、the US, however, freemium models do not exist. Most digital-born outlets (94%) continue to provide free access to users. Given recent disruptions in this space, however, it remains an open question how long this trend will continue and whether we will see a shift to pay models over the next several
44、years. Among newspapers, regional outlets have embraced paywalls more eagerly then their up- market counterparts. As this overview demonstrates, a growing number of news organisations across Europe and in the US are challenging the assumption that people will not pay for digital news. And, encouragi
45、ngly, research suggests that some people across all age groups, including younger media users, are willing to pay for quality content and services online that they find valuable and useful (Fletcher and Nielsen 2016, Newman 2018). The challenge for news organisations now is to deliver such quality c
46、ontent and services, to develop products that provide the kind of user experience and convenience that people have come to expect from digital media, and to market their offers to the many who are currently not paying for journalism, but might do so in the future. Table 1. Average prices for pay mod
47、els (all outlets, all countries) 2019Free accessFreemium () Metered paywall () Hard paywall () Average monthly price () Netflix basic subscription price () N Finlandn/a13.8918.77n/a16.147.9922 Francen/a14.4916.2511.0014.917.9930 Germanyn/a13.4619.75n/a14.517.9931 Italyn/a11.6618.62n/a14.457.9930 Pol
48、andn/a9.1012.428.489.057.4929 UKn/a8.1011.4735.8317.456.9028 USn/an/a10.9534.7011.938.0442 Totaln/a11.8415.4622.5014.067.77212 Note: In the case of a combination of a metered model and premium content, we coded the offer as metered paywall. Exchange rates and Netflix prices at 23 April 2019. Tables
49、PAY MODELS FOR ONLINE NEWS IN THE US AND EUROPE: 2019 UPDATE | 6 | Table 3. Distribution of pay models (all outlets, all countries) 2019N% Total212100 Free access11252.83 Freemium5023.58 Metered paywall4420.75 Hard paywall62.83 Has a pay model10047.17 Has no pay model11252.83 Note: In the case of a combination of a metered model and premium content, we coded the offer as metered paywall. Differences to 100% for the media types are due to rounding. Table 4. Pay models across media types (all countries) 2019Free access (%)Freemium (%)Metered paywall (%)
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