Like Foster's, PPH may pay for paywall stunt

So the Portland Press Herald began a paywall today, with nonsubscribers able to read 10 stories a month for free before having to shell out a debit card number to read their elegantly crafted political tripe.

So what makes its publisher think their paywall will succeed when the Foster’s recent foray into its paywall was an embarrassing bust.

A paywall is when a visitor to an online newspaper website has to pay money to access stories.

In fact, Foster’s paywall likely ended up costing them thousands of dollars, in lost advertisers who saw their impressions plummet, and in having to send a ton of mailers letting folks know “It’s the breaking of a new dawn: Free online access.”

How pitiful is that. First they try to screw you with a paywall, then they insult your intelligence with this “new dawn” and “brave new world” malarkey.

Of course, Donald Sussman, the owner of the PPH and husband of U.S. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, probably is realizing now the hemorrhaging of his fortune just to get his wife re-elected to the House of Representative may not be the road he wants to travel.

Paying top-dollar union wages to reporters and pressman is OK for a couple of years to help your lady spin the news to her and her party’s liking. Yeah, it’s fun for a couple of million dollars but after that it gets old, right Donny?

Just recently the PPH changed its longtime Home Page template and the first thing you notice when you look at it is: Hey, there’s not as many stories!

True that, but if you look harder, it’s a good thing. There’s not as many “same story” offerings on the Home Page, either, not that there’s still not a few.

Plus it used to always bother us when they had a Home Page section titled “More local news” under which stories from Sri Lanka and the Philippines often ran. (I wasted a lot of time looking for the Maine hook in those stories!)

So, anyway, Donny gives a cry of bravado and says, “Let’s spin the wheel, and see what happens. Like the Jack Nicholson-Dianne Keaton classic, Something’s gotta give.’”

You would think Donny might have given the Foster’s a call to ask their advice before venturing out on such a precipitous pricing cliff. But then, again, no one asks the Foster’s for advice. That would be your first mistake.

Back to the impressions factor we mentioned earlier. Most online newspaper ads are sold by the impression, which means they might make a couple of cents for every time a reader sees an ad on their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone.

Obviously if you have a paywall, then fewer readers will read the article and the impressions – and the paper’s ad receipts – go down. That, then, has to be offset with paywall receipts or higher impressions cost, not something you want tell advertisers.

If readership drops too much, the paper has to cave and give out free access again, like the Foster’s had to do.

We’ve probably gotten 20 mailers from Foster’s in our post office box saying “Come back, we’re free again. We’re sorry we were so stupid. We’ll never do it again.”

So our question is this. Was the breaking of the dawn of a new age when you instituted the paywall, or when you retracted it? So the paywall was the nighttime before the dawn? Er, I’m getting confused.

So the paywall was like midnight. I get it.

Basically, most of these papers are on fumes, which means it’s important to find a profit model before you can sell your spiffy little paper. Or else you just slowly implode, atrophy and founder into a sinkhole of journalistic backwash.

Like the you know who.

Speaking of fumes, we were sorry to see the recent demise of the Weekly Observer, even if its editorial import was of minimal consequence in these parts.

I really feel sorry for all the senior citizens who don’t want to go online because they’ve gone their whole lives without computers and declare, “Dammit, I’m not gonna start now.”

For them, the Weekly Observer was at least of some value.

If you have a family member who is a senior, teach them the rudiments so they can at least access online newspapers and email. If you don’t know how, yourself, contact the rec department in your town and ask them where classes might be available. If you need help call The Lebanon Voice at 207.432.2218.

Ask for C.O.

C.O. Jones is a former sleuth, writer, raconteur, provocateur and armchair lawyer who lives in “the area.” You can write him with your tips and tales of woe at thelebanonvoice@aol.com. Staff will see that he gets your messages. His columns will appear as space and time permit.