ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how charging for digital news may support news publishers' revenues and newsroom structures. Proliferation of digital subscriptions started after traditional, print-based business models of the Western newspaper publishers began to falter. In order to explore how newspapers digital subscription numbers have evolved and how paywall revenues have developed, a document analysis was conducted. Paywalls have become a popular model for online news monetizing, and they generate additional revenue for newspapers. Research by L. Chiou and C. Tucker demonstrates that paywalls may impact on news readership. Their analyses of three American local newspapers discovered that the introduction of paywalls impacted negatively on readership, especially among young people. The Financial Times has gained substantially in paid digital subscriptions since it introduced charges for its online content. New news payment systems are also emerging. Dutch company Blendle, for example, has developed a model that allows readers to pay-per-article.
