Articles
Saving newspapers: Where pay walls work
DUBLIN, IRELAND As news organizations worldwide wonder if they can charge for content that readers are accustomed to getting free of charge, two Eastern European countries have pioneered a new model: erecting national paywalls and charging a monthly fee for access to most of their newspapers.
Media executives are now wondering if the model can be scaled up for larger, Western countries, or if it is uniquely suited to small countries, to European nations with a history of mandatory broadcasting taxes, or even to post-communist societies with, some say, a greater thirst for news than those with a longstanding democratic history.