As they look at declining ad rates, independent publishers are searching for new paths to financial sustainability. While there is no single solution that works for everyone, membership programs are growing in popularity among online news publishers. Premium memberships aren’t the same thing as subscriptions or paywalls. Paywalls block access to content for visitors who…
Readers have been clamoring for quality journalism for years. What’s different now is that they’re finally willing to pay for it. The percentage of Americans paying for online news has surged from 9% to 16% in just the past year, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report. Donations to news organizations have tripled in…
More than 23 years have passed since the first banner ad appeared on Wired.com. In the time since, independent publishers have grappled with finding the best ways to generate revenue from their online properties. Subscription models eventually replaced traditional banner ads for many local publishers, but getting readers to pony up $5 per month to…