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Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

nytimes.com

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Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#11

Post by strictnein »

Not the best headline. Here's the gist of it:

> "Google’s plans include doing away with the “first click free” policy, which requires subscription-based news outlets to offer three free articles a day through its search and news features, allowing users to skirt pay walls. A new program, which Google plans to start this week and is calling “flexible sampling,” will allow those publishers to determine how many free clicks to give Google’s users."

So sites can still give access to Google visitors (which I bet many will), but they just have more say over the specifics.

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#12

Post by JumpCrisscross »

grandalf wrote: post #3

Paywalls are a dying gasp being uttered by the publishing industry. Here's why they don't work: - If I respect a publication and feel that the content has value for me, I'll happily subscribe. - If I click on a clickbait headline only to arrive at a paywall, it's like a small and unpleasant electric shock, punishing me for clicking the link. - Paywall creators think that the combination of clickbait and paywalls is m…

You're correct in that reader attitudes towards paywalls are generally negative [1]. You're incorrect in that (a) advertising appears insufficient to sustain a modern press apparatus, and (b) the Wall Street Journal, at the very least, showed paywalls can be financially lucrative [2]. Roughly comparing, on one hand weak paywall deployers, the NYT and Washington Post, and on the other hand strong paywall deployers, the WSJ and Financial Times, the latter appear to benefit more from said paywalls.

[1] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f3f8/85f3876f9c098bac89e5a1...

[2] https://hbr.org/product/the-new-york-times-paywall/512077-PD...

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#13

Post by mathattack »

erentz wrote: post #9

I have no problem with this. But in return I should be able to opt out of results that I cannot view. A result for a news article that changes when I click on it to a "Please subscribe..." plea is not the result that was returned that I clicked on. Unfortunately, like the AMP fiasco, I doubt this is what will happen as Google doesn't exist to serve it's users.

AMP fiasco?

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#14

Post by frandroid »

grandalf wrote: post #3

Paywalls are a dying gasp being uttered by the publishing industry. Here's why they don't work: - If I respect a publication and feel that the content has value for me, I'll happily subscribe. - If I click on a clickbait headline only to arrive at a paywall, it's like a small and unpleasant electric shock, punishing me for clicking the link. - Paywall creators think that the combination of clickbait and paywalls is m…

> - If I respect a publication and feel that the content has value for me, I'll happily subscribe.

How much do you spend monthly supporting online publications?

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#15

Post by baldfat »

erentz wrote: post #9

I have no problem with this. But in return I should be able to opt out of results that I cannot view. A result for a news article that changes when I click on it to a "Please subscribe..." plea is not the result that was returned that I clicked on. Unfortunately, like the AMP fiasco, I doubt this is what will happen as Google doesn't exist to serve it's users.

You block the sources in your Google News feed.

https://news.google.com/news/u/0/settings/sources?hl=en

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#16

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

I happily pay for lots of services, but I just don't think many of these publishers are worth paying for.

I'm pretty tired of shitty clickbait headlines, and stories which cherry-pick a handful of twitter posts to make it seem like there's outrage over something.

Even worse, it seems like most publishers are dead set of trying to feed you their agenda. Why would I pay for misleading or intellectually dishonest articles?

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#17

Post by grandalf »

frandroid wrote: post #14
grandalf wrote: post #3

Paywalls are a dying gasp being uttered by the publishing industry. Here's why they don't work: - If I respect a publication and feel that the content has value for me, I'll happily subscribe. - If I click on a clickbait headline only to arrive at a paywall, it's like a small and unpleasant electric shock, punishing me for clicking the link. - Paywall creators think that the combination of clickbait and paywalls is m…

> - If I respect a publication and feel that the content has value for me, I'll happily subscribe. How much do you spend monthly supporting online publications?

Roughly $50

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#19

Post by baldfat »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #16

I happily pay for lots of services, but I just don't think many of these publishers are worth paying for. I'm pretty tired of shitty clickbait headlines, and stories which cherry-pick a handful of twitter posts to make it seem like there's outrage over something. Even worse, it seems like most publishers are dead set of trying to feed you their agenda. Why would I pay for misleading or intellectually dishonest articl…

These news paid sources are usually only valuable for local content. My local news paper' only redeeming value is it is local but it isn't $4 a week valuable.

Re: Google Unveils Tools to Increase Subscriptions for Publishers

#20

Post by matthewmacleod »

mathattack wrote: post #13
erentz wrote: post #9

I have no problem with this. But in return I should be able to opt out of results that I cannot view. A result for a news article that changes when I click on it to a "Please subscribe..." plea is not the result that was returned that I clicked on. Unfortunately, like the AMP fiasco, I doubt this is what will happen as Google doesn't exist to serve it's users.

AMP fiasco?

The whole thing where AMP is being enforced in Google, such that what were previously links to third-party sites are now served entirely from Google with a moderately-broken shell around them, and with no ability to opt-out of having search results hijacked in this manner.
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