Looking forward to the future of journalism

San Antonio Express-News launches paywall

San Antonio Express-News building
Photo credit: Sean McGee
Our new paid site was unveiled today. We still have the free site at mysanantonio.com that will offer things like breaking news, entertainment and event calendars. But in-depth stories and other features will now be tucked behind a paywall at Expressnews.com.

I’m not sure how I feel about paywalls on news sites, but I see some upsides. Thanks to the paywall, we don’t have to chase page views, so there’s no link bait or bikini-babe slideshows. There’s no extra cost for print subscribers, which rewards them for buying the newspaper. And the new site looks drop-dead gorgeous. It’s actually a pleasure to read without the distracting flash ads.

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This is an interesting strategy. Mysanantonio.com will be free and post potentially viral content, while Expressnews.com will, hopefully, generate revenue from subscribers.

What do you think?

2 thoughts on “San Antonio Express-News launches paywall”

  1. Hi John, I think this is an interesting experiment. I really hope it does generate more revenue for the paper. … I’m curious. Have there been any industry articles, say from Poynter, analyzing this strategy? I’d like to know more about the process of steering viral stories to the free site and other content to the paywall site.

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