After years of letting readers view its online news stories for free, the Los Angeles News Group is asking them to pay up.
All six of its L.A. papers, including the Los Angeles Daily News and Long Beach Press-Telegram, have switched to paywalls under a directive from John Paton, chief executive of the newspaper chain’s parent company, MediaNews Group of Denver. Paton, who had been a leading opponent of paywalls, announced the move in a blog post late last month. The subscription option gives readers limited access to some articles for free, but asks for a paid subscription for full access.
It’s a clear reversal of strategy for Paton, who had publicly dismissed paywalls in the past in favor of offering free Internet content with the goal of building a bigger audience.
But Rick Edmunds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said paywalls were effective enough at other papers to win over Paton.
“The results have been good enough at a wide range of papers that even John Paton, who would describe himself as a skeptic, came around and saw it as a good move,” Edmunds said.
In the blog post, Paton said that growth in digital advertising revenue at the papers, though strong, isn’t enough to pay for publishing print editions while also rolling out new digital offerings.
“We need more gas in the tank if we are going to complete this journey of print-to-digital transformation,” he wrote.
To get people to pay, MediaNews papers have been investing in those online offerings recently. Earlier this year, Los Angeles News Group unveiled redesigned websites. The paywalls went up Nov. 20. Ron Hasse, Los Angeles News Group publisher, did not return a call.
The about-face makes the local papers just the latest to go for a paid online content strategy. A similar paywall approach has been in use at the Los Angeles Times for about 18 months. About 41 percent of daily newspapers in the United States have paywalls after the MediaNews change went into effect, one analyst has written. But not everyone is convinced it will work.
Jonathan Dobrer, an opinion blogger for the Daily News, wrote on the papers’ “Friendly Fire” blog that he disagrees with the change.
“I believe this is exactly the wrong strategy and is doomed to failure,” he wrote. “Instead of restricting visits, news websites should be out promoting views.”
Second Screen
Streaming video tech company AEG Digital Media of Marina del Rey has been working with former college football coaches this season to give fans an alternative to traditional live TV broadcasts.
AEG Digital announced last month that it is working with video firm LiveU of Hackensack, N.J., to stream “Coaches Cabana,” a sports commentary show featuring former college coaches such as Cabana co-founder Barry Switzer of Oklahoma University.
The show shoots in sports bars or coaches’ homes around the country.
The idea is to create a sort of “second-screen” experience that can be watched at the same time as a TV broadcast on a tablet or phone. The long-term plan, once more TVs are connected to the Internet, is for viewers to pull up the commentary on the same TV screen as the game.
“You don’t have to watch someone on network TV do the color,” Switzer told CNBC recently. “You can tweet me and interact with me at the same time.”
Switzer started the company behind “Coaches Cabana” with three others, including Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports. They hired LiveU, which uses a small backpack connected to cellular networks, to broadcast the show from the remote locations.
LiveU then brought in AEG Digital to send the signal out worldwide from its broadcast center in Marina del Rey.
AEG Digital is a division of L.A. sports and entertainment firm Anschutz Entertainment Group. The unit has annual revenue of more than $10 million. Its deals with producers and tech firms vary, but sometimes include a share of revenue from ads displayed alongside the streams.
Staff reporter Jonathan Polakoff can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.
