Paywalls are about your profits, not your customers

The Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas, instituted a paywall on its Web site in July. According to paidContent.org, at the time, the paper's publisher said in an announcement:

It will allow greater value to our many loyal print-edition subscribers by not giving away the news to non-subscribers.

Will it? Undoubtedly, the move makes the news in that part of Texas more scarce and, hence, more valuable, but let's not make the mistake of thinking this paywall was a move to make customers happy. It was a move to drive more people to pay for subscriptions to the paper, rather than have them get the same news for free online.

Don't try to make your decisions look like they were done for the customer when they were really done for the sake of your business model.

(By the way, the article at paidContent.org where I found this quote is worth a read.)

Related posts:

1. Paid journalism’s motto: If you’re good at something, never do it for free
2. Making paywalls work
3. Chris Anderson on paywalls and charging for content
4. Whistleblowers probably won’t like paywalls
5. Most readers would find a free alternative if their paper started charging for content