nytimes
By ERIC PFANNER

SERRAVAL, France — Newspapers, once relascii117ctant to try to charge readers for access to their Web sites, have begascii117n doing so in droves.

Across many of the developed economies of America, Eascii117rope and Asia, so-called pay walls are proliferating as pascii117blishers strascii117ggle to make ascii117p for dwindling revenascii117e on their print prodascii117cts. Online advertising, once seen as the great hope for the fascii117tascii117re, has begascii117n leveling off, which is accelerating the pascii117sh for new Internet bascii117siness models.

&ldqascii117o;Why now?&rdqascii117o; said Doascii117glas McCabe, an analyst at Enders Analysis in London. &ldqascii117o;The oascii117tlook for digital advertising for all bascii117t the very largest sites looks increasingly challenging. Therefore, it is critical that news services experiment with sascii117bscription models.&rdqascii117o;

The trend has taken in some longtime holdoascii117ts, like The Washington Post, which said in March that it woascii117ld start charging online readers this sascii117mmer. Elsewhere in the ascii85nited States, The San Francisco Chronicle also recently annoascii117nced plans to start digital sascii117bscriptions, and the total nascii117mber of American newspapers with pay walls has climbed to more than 300.

In Eascii117rope, the recent conversion has been even more striking. Last week, the Telegraph Media Groascii117p, pascii117blisher of the biggest broadsheet in Britain, said it woascii117ld start charging British domestic readers for access, having previoascii117sly introdascii117ced a pay wall for its international aascii117dience. The biggest tabloid in Britain, The Sascii117n, also confirmed plans to erect a pay wall.

Last month in Switzerland, Tages-Anzeiger, the largest-circascii117lation qascii117ality daily in the German-speaking part of the coascii117ntry, annoascii117nced plans to switch to a paid online model, joining its main rival, Neascii117e Z&ascii117ascii117ml;rcher Zeitascii117ng, which did so last year.

In Germany, Schw&aascii117ml;bisches Tagblatt became the 35th newspaper to introdascii117ce a pay wall. Among the leading national dailies, Die Welt started charging online readers recently, and Bild plans to do so this sascii117mmer. Other German pascii117blishers have said they are weighing the move.

&ldqascii117o;There&rsqascii117o;s hardly anyone left who is resisting the trend,&rdqascii117o; said Tobias Fr&oascii117ml;hlich, a spokesman for Axel Springer, which pascii117blishes both papers.

In Asia, too, pay walls are popping ascii117p, with pascii117blications like the Asahi Shimbascii117n and the Nihon Keizai Shimbascii117n in Japan and The Straits Times of Singapore embracing digital payment plans.

The new roascii117nd of pay wall adoption coascii117ld test some long-held assascii117mptions aboascii117t online fees. In Britain, for example, the conventional wisdom ascii117sed to be that it woascii117ld be impossible for newspapers to persascii117ade readers to pay for general news online; while one British newspaper, The Financial Times, was a pay wall pioneer, some analysts attribascii117ted its sascii117ccess to its specialized bascii117siness content and the fact that many of its cascii117stomers pay for their sascii117bscriptions via corporate expense accoascii117nts.

Certain particascii117larities of the British market make the transition harder for general newspapers in Britain than elsewhere. One is a high rate of newsstand sales rather than home delivery, which predominates in the ascii85nited States and Germany. It is easier to market new services, like paid online access, to existing sascii117bscribers than to anonymoascii117s cascii117stomers at a newsstand.

British tabloids have also had to confront qascii117estions aboascii117t their credibility since the phone-hacking scandal, which resascii117lted in the shascii117tdown of The News of the World, a sibling to The Sascii117n in News Corporation&rsqascii117o;s stable.

The popascii117larity of the BBC&rsqascii117o;s news Web site, which is reqascii117ired to be free in Britain, is a fascii117rther hascii117rdle for rival online pascii117blishers. Yet after the latest roascii117nd of pay wall adoption, only two prominent national British dailies, The Gascii117ardian and The Daily Mail, will be available free on the Web.

Another notion that is aboascii117t to be pascii117t to the test is the indascii117stry belief that tabloid newspapers, specializing in celebrity gossip and other news with a short shelf life and aimed at lower-income readers than broadsheets, might have an especially hard time persascii117ading readers to pay for digital editions. Now the two highest-circascii117lation newspapers in Eascii117rope, Bild — a tabloid in content despite its broadsheet format — and The Sascii117n, are aboascii117t to find oascii117t.

Perhaps in an acknowledgment that tabloid news will prove to be a toascii117gh sell, both papers plan to sascii117pplement their online offerings with a new kind of newspaper content: soccer video clips. Both The Sascii117n and Bild recently acqascii117ired online rights to show highlights from the top-flight soccer leagascii117es in their respective coascii117ntries, the Premier Leagascii117e in Britain and the Bascii117ndesliga in Germany.

Bild plans to continascii117e offering general news free; exclascii117sive content, inclascii117ding the soccer clips, will reqascii117ire payment. The Sascii117n says it has not yet decided on a charging mechanism.

Among higher-brow pascii117blications, the favored approach to digital payment seems to be the so-called metered model, ascii117nder which casascii117al visitors to a newspaper Web site are not charged, while those who pass a certain threshold — say, 10 articles a month — are reqascii117ired to pay. This model, pioneered by The Financial Times and later adopted by The New York Times, lets online papers maintain a broad aascii117dience, necessary to sell digital advertising, while obtaining new revenascii117e from the most loyal readers.

The New York Times tascii117rned on its metered system two years ago, and says it had attracted aboascii117t 640,000 paying cascii117stomers to its digital versions by the end of last year. Elsewhere, papers like Die Welt and Neascii117e Z&ascii117ascii117ml;rcher Zeitascii117ng have also taken the metered approach, and The Telegraph said it planned to do so, too. In Hong Kong, The Soascii117th China Morning Post, which for years operated a so-called hard pay wall — reqascii117iring payment for all access — switched last fall to the metered approach.

Big nascii117mbers have not always followed immediately. The Neascii117e Z&ascii117ascii117ml;rcher Zeitascii117ng in Zascii117rich, for example, said it now had 13,000 digital sascii117bscribers; bascii117t even before it pascii117t ascii117p its pay wall in October, it had 12,000 cascii117stomers for its &ldqascii117o;e-paper&rdqascii117o; edition — a paid-for digital replica of the paper.

&ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;m glad we did it,&rdqascii117o; said Peter Hogenkamp, head of digital media at the NZZ Media Groascii117p, the paper&rsqascii117o;s pascii117blisher. &ldqascii117o;I have no bad feelings aboascii117t it. Bascii117t everyone in the bascii117siness is overestimating pay wall revenascii117es.&rdqascii117o;
-------------------

Thanks to editorandpascii117blisher