The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., will start charging for digital access on Feb. 1, according to one of my readers -- becoming one of the first sites to do so as Gannett imposes paywalls across many if not all the U.S. community newspapers. CEO Gracia Martore first disclosed the broad paywall plan during an early-December Wall Street investor conference.
The Wilmington paper has also posted openings for four newsroom jobs, including an update editor, plus a military reporter, breaking news reporter, and a shopping/arts reporter. The openings were all posted to JournalismJobs on Dec. 23.
The update editor job description says: "The right candidate will have an enthusiastic attitude toward innovation and work closely with a team of reporters and editors to keep the website ahead of the news. Must be able to quickly write breaking and general news from multiple sources as it develops, and also select, edit and post related photos."
What's your site's paywall plan? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
The update editor job description says: "The right candidate will have an enthusiastic attitude toward innovation and work closely with a team of reporters and editors to keep the website ahead of the news. Must be able to quickly write breaking and general news from multiple sources as it develops, and also select, edit and post related photos."
What's your site's paywall plan? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
These new openings are all related to the research that was done on local “passion topics”
ReplyDeleteBet the pay/benefits are far less than they were for the folks who were laid off. An adjustment for the digital journalism. Less revenue, less quality, a lot fewer people.
ReplyDeleteJim, you're reporting here that the paywalls will go on all U.S. newspapers. But your earlier report said that an undetermined number of papers would get them. Which is correct?
ReplyDeleteLighten up 4:38 Jim's "sources" never let things like facts get in the way of a good rumor.
ReplyDelete4:55 My source is Gracia Martore herself.
ReplyDeleteHaving re-read the text of her remarks, I see nothing to indicate that any of the community papers are exempt. I do wonder about USA Today, however.
Please continue coverage of Gannett pay walls. It's of paramount importance in these critical times. And, a terrible idea too.
ReplyDelete7:23 get a grip. Paywalls are the only way online media companies will stay in business. You can't give it away. Free was a bad model. The entire industry must change, period, no argument. You can attack the quality of the content but nit the model. Survival is based on paywalls. No one ever clicks on an online ad. You know it, we know it and the media companies know it.
ReplyDelete7:47 wrong, wrong, wrong. Pay walls for local content, while others offer equally good or better local content free, is a bad idea. A pay wall would work for really specialized and unique content, but not for what is easily consumable and free just one easy click away.
ReplyDeleteIf you're in a larger city you have nearly every television station website (and a couple of radio station websites) who will continue to provide free local news.
ReplyDeleteOur small town market has a local radio station whose website is free, contains much more local news than our paper, has news that's current and up to date, and is the first place people turn (including our newspaper employees) for breaking news.
Will the paywalls bring in revenue? Yes, but not nearly as much as corporate hopes for.
Yes, but Wilmington is a city without a television station.
ReplyDelete6:57am - But Wilmington does have news radio station that doesn't charge for content. Perhaps Wilmington online revenue will be great, but for the majority of Gannett papers, charging for online content is NOT going to produce a large amount of revenue.
ReplyDeleteDo you realize how much radio news is read directly from newspaper stories? Starting my career in radio many years ago, I read DIRECTLY from newspaper copy more times than I could count. Someone had to buy that paper to get it in our office. As it is now, radio stations can get local news copy free on the internet from their local newspaper sites. Change a few words around and nobody is the wiser. If they have to pay to see that content in the first place, how do you think they're going to get their news?
ReplyDeleteNewspapers should not only put up pay walls, but also copyright their content.
"Newspapers should not only put up pay walls, but also copyright their content."
ReplyDeleteOh, boy, you're a genius. Why hasn't anyone thought of that!?!
With its employees' level of understanding of the business demonstrated in this thread, Gannett deserves to die the miserable death it is undergoing.
I think they will fail. Even though The News Journal is the only game in town in Wilmington, as it was stated, radio stations use our content everyday and I have to say, I listen to their content over my own. We have had some great in depth reporting lately but to charge $3 for a Sunday paper and then charge for local ccntent. We are doomed. It just won't happen. In case no one has realized we are in a recession. Gannett being gready as always. What else is new.
ReplyDeleteWilmo Radio stations have been stealing TNJ content for years. The first customers to sign up for the pay wall for Delaware Online will be the local radio stations which don't do any REAL reporting, they do scrubbing. They pick the bones of the TNJ print and digital editions and then re-write the headlines for their own reports. Been going on for decades.
ReplyDelete