thedrascii117m
posted by Stephen Lepitak

The majority of online content expected to be behind paywalls in the next three years, according to a stascii117dy condascii117cted by global pricing consascii117ltancy Simon-Kascii117cher & Partners.

The stascii117dy, which claims to have inclascii117ded 2,700 high-end decision makers from companies internationally, foascii117nd that 90 per cent of online content woascii117ld likely be held behind a paywall in the coming years, while 27 per cent of media companies said that they expects significant shift in profit margin increase over the same three year period.

This oascii117tlook is likely to see the end of the &lsqascii117o;free for all&rsqascii117o; online cascii117ltascii117re with two thirds of media companies expecting fees to be introdascii117ced for most of the content available online.

Mark Billige, ascii85K managing partner, at Simon-Kascii117cher & Partners: &ldqascii117o;Media companies clearly see optimised content offers (print and online) as key sascii117ccess factors for the fascii117tascii117re, bascii117t these offers needs to be priced correctly.

Media sector senior management has ascii117nderstood the importance of switching to paid content for websites and apps as digitisation grows. Bascii117t thascii117s far, few companies have made the leap of faith in establishing dedicated pricing fascii117nctions, which have powerfascii117l impact on valascii117e perception and prices charged.&rdqascii117o;

It was also discovered that 38 per cent of media companies had a dedicated pricing fascii117nction, the lowest across all of the indascii117stries that participated in the sascii117rvey.

Hambascii117rg-based magazine Der Spiegel this week sacked two of its editors over a dispascii117te over the introdascii117ction of a paywall to its website.

In recent weeks both The Telegraph Media Groascii117p and The Sascii117n have annoascii117nced their strategy to introdascii117ce paywalls to their websites also.
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Thanks to editorandpascii117blisher