23 August 2010 12:46
Plans for News International to apply a paywall to their tabloid publications could backfire, according to one marketing expert.
The corporation is expected to introduce a paywall for the News of the World website.
This makes it the first UK tabloid to charge for online content, with readers targeted through exclusive video content.
News International's decision to charge across its publications follows the reported failure of the Times paywall.
ComScore revealed last week that since the erection of the paywall, the newspaper has lost close to half (42 per cent) of its online readership.
The average online readership decline for UK newspapers was 0.8 per cent, though it was also reported that the average time spent by UK visitors on a site increased by the same percentage.
David Davis, of RedFly Marketing, said that the experiment would probably yield mixed results for marketers and advertisers.
He commented: "From an advertiser's perspective this might turn out to be a good thing as the publisher will have a lot more demographic information on each and every user.
"While the exposure will most certainly be less as a result of the paywall, the targeting will be better."
However, consumers could be put off by advertising after they have paid to access content.
"I personally think that the organisations placing their content behind a paywall are destined to regret it. The majority of the content will be available for free elsewhere, customers will only be paying for style and originally researched content," Mr Davis added.
Posted by Stanley Jack
