Coming Up Next on CNN: A Paywall

DNYUZ ^ | 09/26/2024

[DFG]

The most-visited news website in the United States is trying out a paywall.

In early October, CNN will begin experimenting with charging some readers for digital access as part of a bid to shore up its business as cable television erodes industrywide, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.

The company is planning a so-called metered model, which will require the site’s habitual users to pay after reading a certain number of articles, the people said. Many other publishers, including The New York Times and The New Yorker, have used metered paywalls to generate subscriptions over the past decade.

The starting price of a subscription is unclear. But the two people said that CNN would start with an inexpensive offering to gauge customer demand.

A CNN spokeswoman declined to comment.

The subscription wall is one of the first major business initiatives from Mark Thompson, CNN’s chairman and chief executive, who joined the network nearly a year ago. Mr. Thompson said in a memo to employees this year that technology would allow CNN to deliver journalism that readers “will pay for” and later said that the company would try out a paywall.

Mr. Thompson is the former chief executive of The Times, where he championed a digital subscription business that now powers the company. Since joining CNN, he has hired executives to help lay the groundwork for the network’s paywall push, including Alex MacCallum, a veteran of The Times who is now CNN’s executive vice president of digital products and services.

[jmaroneps37]

The communists think that even though we aren’t watching their pathetic lies for free we will pay to watch them lie in the future. Didn’t the Times or some other propaganda arm of the DNC try this and quick give it up a while ago?

[metmom]

CNN has a product people don’t want to read for free so they want to start charging for it?

Only a leftist would think that's a good idea.

[wetgundog]

Who pays for CRAP?