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Abstract

ree, then it’s not worth having. To combat this desire for free content, providers have had to switch to different models to make their work financially viable.</p><p id="b254">Making money through writing basically boils down to 2 options; getting the end-user to pay for it <b>or</b> use ads.</p><p id="5842">Everyone hates ads. My finger is preconditioned to hover over that skip button on YouTube. I must spend hours skipping, poised to skip, or inadvertently watching ads on YouTube if I’m too slow. If I put an hourly rate on how long I spend doing this, it’d far outweigh the monthly subscription to YouTube Premium. I could stop this inconvenience for a relatively small fee, and given the amount of time I spend on YouTube, it makes complete sense - but I’m never going to. Why? Because the alternative is free. And wasting my time is still somehow preferable to paying for the subscription.</p><p id="f7f6">Ads probably aren’t going away anytime soon. But we should try…there are plenty of good reasons to.</p><h1 id="db90">Why do we need paywalls?</h1><h2 id="eaac">1. To stop the alternative</h2><p id="9bf8">Ads are not inherently evil. But as the old saying goes, “if you are not paying for the product, you are the product”. Many of us instantly recoil at the idea that our data will be harvested and sold to the highest bidder. The main reason for doing this is to create targeted advertising. The more advertisers know about you, the more they can target ads to you that you are likely to buy.</p><p id="f3d3">When you build a paywall, this relationship changes. Suddenly, knowing more about your audience becomes a way to create content that you know they’ll love. To me, that seems a more honest reason for doing it, rather than making content your audience will love to keep them coming back to watch ads.</p><p id="9fd0">By refusing to pay for online content, you are forcing your (presumably) well-loved platform into selling your presence for ad revenue. Wouldn’t you rather give your money directly to the company you get value from?</p><h2 id="cfe4">2. To create high-quality and engaging content</h2><p id="b048">The paywall model creates a regular source of income for the content creator. By doing so they can effectively plan and invest in future content. This me

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ans more exciting or new writers, articles, or content. People who work for advertisers rather than their fans have to cater to the advertisers, not the audience. You are not their customers; the advertisers are. This means they can take fewer risks with their content, as they need to reliably appeal to the same demographic to keep the ad money coming in. Advertisers need to know which audience they are pitching to.</p><p id="ec70">It also encourages clickbait.</p><h2 id="4994">3. It’s not that hard to do it and still be profitable</h2><p id="dad2">In 2020, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/273503/average-paid-weekday-circulation-of-the-new-york-times/">the New York Times sold around 374,000 copies per week</a>. That doesn't include everyone that purchased digital subscriptions, I’m talking about physical copies of the newspaper…in 2020…when the internet is everywhere.</p><p id="ffa3">Based on the print numbers alone, you could charge people $5 a month, and still bring in almost$ 1.9 million. Not to mention the savings with no printworks and less resource-heavy production of the same high-quality journalism, at a fraction of the price.</p><h2 id="fcbb">4. Making content free devalues the valuable</h2><p id="98b4">Everyone is familiar with the idea that you get what you pay for. When all content costs the end-user nothing, then 2 things happen. Firstly, the content becomes disposable. If it cost nothing, then many will consider it worthless. Secondly, if there is no distinguishable marker between different content (e.g. a price tag) then suddenly everything becomes of equal value. A price tag is more than simply the cost of content, it’s a marker of quality. While this is great for the democratization of information, it can sometimes be hard to instinctively work out reliable sources of information when they are all on the same level.</p><h1 id="3a34">Final thoughts</h1><p id="8fdd">While nobody likes them, but we need more paywalls. We need to get over our aversion to paying for content online and start paying for online content. Not just because it's “the right thing to do” or to support the careers of skilled creators, but because by doing so we enrich the web experience for ourselves. The only other alternative is ads.</p></article></body>

Build That (Pay)Wall

We need a Spotify-like approach to accessing written digital content to prevent the death of the internet.

I blame Napster.

Back in the bygone age of the early internet, Napster taught us that we could expect music for free if only we had the patience for our 56k dial-up modem to download it. This early precedent set the tone for consuming content online. It shaped our attitudes and expectations about paying for online content that we might be able to get for free from “other sources”.

Fast-forward to the modern-day, and people still have a problem paying for online content. With the internet becoming primarily a medium that conveys the written word, we probably shouldn't be surprised that strategies have evolved to get around having to pay for content. While the world has moved on from the days of acceptable music and video piracy and into the world of Spotify and Netflix, somehow paying for the written word still lags behind.

We need a culture shift. Something that makes paywalls as normal as streaming services.

It doesn't help when the internet is littered with articles about bypassing paywalls to access online content for free. Even one of the most popular articles on this platform is about bypassing them altogether (out of principle, I’m not linking it!). Similarly, like so many things in life, Google search’s predictive function has become a fantastic insight into the collective behavior of the human race. If you type ‘paywall’ into Google, you already know what the prediction for the next word is… right?

But why exactly do we have this aversion to paying for online content?

More importantly, should we actually be paying for it?

Online business models

The internet has taught us that if it isn’t free, then it’s not worth having. To combat this desire for free content, providers have had to switch to different models to make their work financially viable.

Making money through writing basically boils down to 2 options; getting the end-user to pay for it or use ads.

Everyone hates ads. My finger is preconditioned to hover over that skip button on YouTube. I must spend hours skipping, poised to skip, or inadvertently watching ads on YouTube if I’m too slow. If I put an hourly rate on how long I spend doing this, it’d far outweigh the monthly subscription to YouTube Premium. I could stop this inconvenience for a relatively small fee, and given the amount of time I spend on YouTube, it makes complete sense - but I’m never going to. Why? Because the alternative is free. And wasting my time is still somehow preferable to paying for the subscription.

Ads probably aren’t going away anytime soon. But we should try…there are plenty of good reasons to.

Why do we need paywalls?

1. To stop the alternative

Ads are not inherently evil. But as the old saying goes, “if you are not paying for the product, you are the product”. Many of us instantly recoil at the idea that our data will be harvested and sold to the highest bidder. The main reason for doing this is to create targeted advertising. The more advertisers know about you, the more they can target ads to you that you are likely to buy.

When you build a paywall, this relationship changes. Suddenly, knowing more about your audience becomes a way to create content that you know they’ll love. To me, that seems a more honest reason for doing it, rather than making content your audience will love to keep them coming back to watch ads.

By refusing to pay for online content, you are forcing your (presumably) well-loved platform into selling your presence for ad revenue. Wouldn’t you rather give your money directly to the company you get value from?

2. To create high-quality and engaging content

The paywall model creates a regular source of income for the content creator. By doing so they can effectively plan and invest in future content. This means more exciting or new writers, articles, or content. People who work for advertisers rather than their fans have to cater to the advertisers, not the audience. You are not their customers; the advertisers are. This means they can take fewer risks with their content, as they need to reliably appeal to the same demographic to keep the ad money coming in. Advertisers need to know which audience they are pitching to.

It also encourages clickbait.

3. It’s not that hard to do it and still be profitable

In 2020, the New York Times sold around 374,000 copies per week. That doesn't include everyone that purchased digital subscriptions, I’m talking about physical copies of the newspaper…in 2020…when the internet is everywhere.

Based on the print numbers alone, you could charge people $5 a month, and still bring in almost $1.9 million. Not to mention the savings with no printworks and less resource-heavy production of the same high-quality journalism, at a fraction of the price.

4. Making content free devalues the valuable

Everyone is familiar with the idea that you get what you pay for. When all content costs the end-user nothing, then 2 things happen. Firstly, the content becomes disposable. If it cost nothing, then many will consider it worthless. Secondly, if there is no distinguishable marker between different content (e.g. a price tag) then suddenly everything becomes of equal value. A price tag is more than simply the cost of content, it’s a marker of quality. While this is great for the democratization of information, it can sometimes be hard to instinctively work out reliable sources of information when they are all on the same level.

Final thoughts

While nobody likes them, but we need more paywalls. We need to get over our aversion to paying for content online and start paying for online content. Not just because it's “the right thing to do” or to support the careers of skilled creators, but because by doing so we enrich the web experience for ourselves. The only other alternative is ads.