News Corp (NYSE: NWS) and Guardian Media Group may be amongst the few publishers on-record as as investigating putting more content behind the pay wall – but they’re by no means alone, as the ad downturn forces proprietors to find new income streams.
The latest is Axel Springer, the publisher of newspapers Die Welt and Bild, the paper with Europe’s highest circulation. CEO Mathias Doepfner tells Dow Jones: “Only free content on the internet is no business model for the future. I’m convinced that customers will be willing to pay for online quality content within the next five years.”
But nothing depends on finding a paid content pot at the end of a rainbow: “Our business cases aren’t based on a breakthrough of paid content, but will work anyhow.”
Meanwhile, Springer aims to increase the proportion of its sales from 17 percent to 50 percent within a decade by in-house web growth and acquisitions, the story says. The online portfolio now includes Hamburg.de, Gamigo.de, Motortalk.de, Auto.cz, Students.cz, AuFeminin, OnMeda.de and FondsDiscount.de, as well as Welt.de and Bild.de.