The Cincinnati Enquirer's parent company is testing a “pay wall” system at three of its newspapers as it attempts to devise a business model that involves users paying for Internet content.
If successful, the model being implemented at the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, The Greenville News in South Carolina and The Spectrum in St. George, Utah, eventually could be implemented at Cincinnati's only surviving daily newspaper.—-
All the newspapers are owned by The Gannett Co., based in McLean, Va.
According to a report on Poynter Online, a journalism industry Web site, the fee for online-only content is $9.95 a month; the cost for Web access bundled with a print subscription varies by market. In Tallahassee, seven-day home delivery (with Web access) costs $20, while an online day pass costs $2.
Kate Marymont, news vice president for Gannett's Community Publishing Division, told a Poynter writer that "we know this is not the model, this is a small-scale test."
Gannett hasn't yet decided on the approach for its other markets, a company spokeswoman said, but that the firm will use what it learns from the test sites "to help us develop our long-term strategy for paid content."
