It’s no secret that the digital news business is a tough one to crack. People are reading and sharing news content less than ever before. A recent study showed that the average adult will spend just 21 minutes reading news online today. That’s a staggering decline from just five years ago, when we all collectively spent 43 minutes on news sites every day.
What are the Benefits of Not Setting Up a Paywall in a News Website?
A paywall is one way to charge users directly for access to your content; however, there are many benefits of not setting up a paywall for your news website. Let’s take a look at some great reasons why you shouldn’t put up walls around your content.
User Awareness is Important
News is a topic that’s often extremely topical, so even if you set up a paywall, people might not be willing to pay for your content in the future. Take the example of a fire in a nearby building; while this might be a hugely important event for one specific group of people, it’s unlikely to be something that would interest the average reader.
A paywall would mean that the would-be readers — the very people you want to be reading your content — wouldn’t be able to access your fire coverage. Not setting up a paywall will also give them time to illegally search for something like how to bypass paywall with inspect element just to read what they need to know as part of the society. Thus, it makes them more aware that a premium service is the easier path and also, a small contribution to the growth of the economy.
Your Content is Worth more than just its Words
News websites rely on a community of readers to grow and succeed; in fact, it’s often said that an average news website has 80% of its traffic come from repeat readers.
This means that if you want your traffic to continue growing, you need to keep your community happy.
Setting up a paywall is an easy way to alienate current readers, many of whom might not have been planning to pay for your content in the first place. As we’ve already seen, people are less likely to share content that they’re required to pay for. This means that your articles will be less likely to reach new readers.