Medienspiegel.ch

Nach der «New York Times» denkt nun auch der «Guardian» über die Einführung eines kostenpflichtigen «Members' Clubs» nach, wie Sunny Hundal auf «Liberal Conspiracy» berichtet:

«The Guardian is considering launching a members' club which will provide extra benefits in return for an annual or monthly fee.

These benefits might include, for example, a welcome pack, exclusive content, live events, special offers from our partners and the opportunity to communicate with our journalists.»

Das alles habe jedoch nichts mit der Einführung von gebührenpflichtigen «Guardian»-Inhalten zu tun, wird Emily Bell, director of digital content bei Guardian News and Media Ltd., in einem Update zur Meldung von «Liberal Conspiracy» zitiert (die Echtheit des «fadengraden» Zitats wurde von Sunny Hundal auf Anfrage bestätigt):

«No – we are not contemplating a pay wall, nor as far as I'm concerned would we ever….they are a stupid idea in that they restrict audiences for largely replicable content. Murdoch no doubt will find this out – even rudimentary maths suggests he will struggle with a completely free model to meet advertising revenue levels across the NI offerings.

We are obviously looking at other methods of diversifying revenues, so this might well be where some of the confusion has arisen. I don't know how many times or how clearly I can say we won't be charging for content on the site, but we won't……only six months ago we removed the last remaining paywall from web content – that around our crosswords!

Our strategy is entirely around reach and audience engagement – both if which would be irreperably damaged by pay walls.»

Zugegeben: Bei, laut «Handelsblatt», «26 Millionen Leser[n], zwei Drittel davon [...] aus dem Ausland» fällt die Fokussierung auf Reichweite und «audience engagement» auch etwas leichter.