Will local newspapers succeed in charging for online access?

Johnson Press’s decision to trial subscription on some of its local sites, including the Northumberland Gazette, is a sensible experiment, and particularly interesting given the recently announced plans for News International titles to do the same.

The idea of local newspapers charging for content might just be supported by the apparent early success of local titles such as Newport Daily News in charging for content.

However, it would be dangerous to assume that if something works in the USA, it will work in the UK as well. The structure of the newspaper industries in the two countries is very different, with local newspapers being held in far higher importance in the USA than they are in the UK, partly because of the absence of national newspaper brands, and partly because of the locally focussed attitude of many Americans.

Nonetheless local newspapers do have a hold on the UK psyche. And local newspapers have content that is not easy to find elsewhere. If you want to learn how Steven Young gave Choppington Travellers Rest the lead at home to Woodhorn Lane, then there are few places you will be able to find that information outside the Northumberland Gazette.

The question for Johnson Press is – are sufficient numbers of people willing to pay to find the latest on sporting prowess of the Choppington Travellers Rest soccer team.

Maybe. Certainly Johnson Press seem to have chosen an attractive price point, £5 for 3 months. If you are willing to pay something, surely you will be willing to pay that.

And the way that the Northumberland Gazette offers you a tantalising view of the first few lines of the content is surely going to work better than the approach taken by Newport Daily News where only the headlines on the front page can be read.

But Johnson will have to do better with their sign up process. At the moment visitors:

1.see an invitation to subscribe
2.and are then pointed to a log in page
3.which contains another button to a page where users register
4.after which they go to their email
5.where they confirm registration by clicking on a link
6.which takes them back to the newspaper
7.where they click on a story
8.and then see the subscribe button (again!)
9.and then (and only then) are able subscribe.

Come on guys, that’s just silly!

And remember, even if Johnson Press do make this work for their local papers, there is absolutely no reason to assume that the same will be true for the News International titles, which may well prove to be far more “substitutable”.

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director
jeremy@mcand.co.uk