ECREA16-Abstract

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Saturday, November 12

1 6 : 0 0 – 1 7 : 3 0

PP 715

Paywalls in Local Newspapers: Contradiction Between Strategies, Practices, and Audience’s Expectations

M. Himma-Kadakas

, K. Kula

University of Tartu, Department of Social Studies, Tartu, Estonia

University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

Newspaper paywalls are becoming a norm all around the world. The strategies of deciding what content should be put behind the paywall have evolved

over the last years. This has offered somewhat alternative for traditional business model. There has been research on the content behind the paywall, but

there has been shorfall of multifold research on the paid content, the strategies behind the decision what should be put behind the paywall, and on the au‑

dience’s expectations on the content they would be willing to pay for. We used triangulation of qualitative methods (text analysis, in-depth interviews, and

focus group interviews) to analyse the content behind paywall of three local Estonian newspapers. Our aim was to find out what content is being charged

for, what are the strategies behind the decisions of pricing the content, and what is the audience willing to pay for.The results of the study indicate that there

is contradiction between the practice and strategy of content pricing in local newspapers.The content behind the paywall is selected randomly and does not

match the strategies of content pricing the editors in chief express. The expectation of the audience of local newspapers does not match the strategies nor

practices of content pricing.The audience expects to get the‘urgent’information free of charge. Also news that is freely accessible on the internet should not

be priced. However, local newspapers tend to put behind the paywall also the previously mentioned content. The audience of local newspapers is willing

to pay for web special and exclusive content. The conclusions of this study refer to the imminence that in long term this situation may lead to the decline

of audience interest and willingness to pay for local newspaper content.