It Looks Like the Herald is Going Paywall

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Smpl Mnmlst
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#2098434 29-Sep-2018 08:55

alasta:

No, the NZBC got carved out into TVNZ and Radio NZ. The latter was responsible for both commercial and public service radio stations up until the privatisation of 1996.

Ah, I stand corrected ..... [pulls head in].

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ockel

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#2106871 12-Oct-2018 17:09

Update from Fairfax Media:

Stuff's NZ Media Revenue is down 15% YTD in NZD terms. Ouch. Might hasten the rush to paywalls.

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JimmyH

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#2107780 14-Oct-2018 20:57

Maybe. But rushing to implement a paywall won't do them much good unless they have a product worth paying for. And at the moment, I don't see many people who seem to think that they do.

Geektastic

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#2107837 14-Oct-2018 23:15

JimmyH:

Maybe. But rushing to implement a paywall won't do them much good unless they have a product worth paying for. And at the moment, I don't see many people who seem to think that they do.

Absolutely agree. Indeed, I'd be very happy if they were to go behind a paywall because then my wife would cease sending me ridiculous articles which I have to pretend I read...!

Hammerer

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#2107875 15-Oct-2018 00:55

Geektastic:

JimmyH:

Maybe. But rushing to implement a paywall won't do them much good unless they have a product worth paying for. And at the moment, I don't see many people who seem to think that they do.

Absolutely agree. Indeed, I'd be very happy if they were to go behind a paywall because then my wife would cease sending me ridiculous articles which I have to pretend I read...!

Tragic irony? Let us know if she does decide to pay for them.

sailedpeep

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#2146326 16-Dec-2018 22:41

There's an interesting description of how the Herald paywall is going to work in Duncan Grieve's NZ media series on The Spinoff. The entire thing is well worth reading.

The idea is to differentiate between the ordinary Herald and a ‘premium’ product. Each will sit alongside one another, but premium will be behind a hard paywall. Unlike the New York Times, which grants a limited number of free stories each month before prompting a subscription, the Herald is said to be considering not allowing any premium content to be viewed without paying up front.

On one level the paywall move makes sense. The Herald is “still producing great work”, said one exec, and the Weekend Herald is widely acknowledged as the both the best paper in the country and easily its strongest print advertising location. With the possible exception of RNZ’s Morning Report, it might be the single strongest journalistic product in the country. This is off the back of an extraordinary array of top-shelf talent: Kirsty Johnston, Simon Wilson, Steve Braunias, David Fisher, Simon Collins, Jared Savage, Phil Taylor, Anna Leask and Natalie Akoorie. There’s a press gallery team led by Claire Trevett and Audrey Young, and an incredibly strong business unit. The latter was already a powerhouse, with Liam Dann, Matt Nippert, Hamish Fletcher and Fran O’Sullivan; then it conducted an lightning raid on the NBR’s masthead, emerging with former editor Duncan Bridgeman and peerless tech reporter Chris Keall.

This line-up, along with many other strong columnists and beat reporters, will make the Herald Premium a superb product. The issue they have is that it will sit underneath a Herald online brand which has suffered serious damage over the past few years. “People will only pay for something they perceive as having value,” one exec told me. “They’ve got a real issue with clickbait.” To put it very simply, it appears that they will be trying to sell the New York Times behind the front page of the Daily Mail. “And with all due respect to the Herald, they’re not the New York Times,” said a rival. Another questioned whether the lack of visibility for premium content meant that the Herald had actually fallen behind its free rival Stuff in terms of the prominence of its best work. “Stuff has probably made a more significant move in that direction.”

https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/14-12-2018/nzme-the-media-giant-still-at-war-after-all-these-years/

I have to say I agree with whoever this rival exec is, the Herald has an image problem.

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#2146392 17-Dec-2018 08:49

As an example of how tenuous these paywalls can be: I subscribe to the Daily Telegraph and The Times.

Whilst neither paper is as good as they were in the 70's and 80's, The Times is the better of the two for in depth journalism, the DT has faster news headlines and some good comment (and Matt!) but a lot of gossip rubbish masquerading as news etc. I decided that, since both are a reasonable cost when paying from overseas, I would cancel the DT.

I contacted them by Live Chat to ask them to cancel - and they promptly (and with no suggestion from me) offered to slash the sub by half for 12 months...!

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dafman

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#2146397 17-Dec-2018 09:05

I look at the NZ Herald from time to time and there's nothing there that would tempt me to pay when there are so many other better quality offerings - like, for example, the UK Guardian which we happily subscribe to annually.

howdystranger

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#2146440 17-Dec-2018 09:45

IMO it seems reasonably clear when you look at the Herald website where they have a 'premium and in depth' section what they would charge for

Geektastic

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#2146464 17-Dec-2018 10:18

howdystranger:

IMO it seems reasonably clear when you look at the Herald website where they have a 'premium and in depth' section what they would charge for

Unfortunately, it is all rubbish. It is rare that anything worth writing about actually happens in NZ - and certainly they could get away with publishing weekly not daily.

tdgeek

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#2146474 17-Dec-2018 10:32

Geektastic:

howdystranger:

IMO it seems reasonably clear when you look at the Herald website where they have a 'premium and in depth' section what they would charge for

Unfortunately, it is all rubbish. It is rare that anything worth writing about actually happens in NZ - and certainly they could get away with publishing weekly not daily.

I see. So ideally, all online newspapers should really remove the National section, or have the 2 validly written articles on what is happening or issues here in NZ appear once a week?

The fact is if you can't be bothered and are not interested with news in NZ or about NZ and prefer to read your home country's news. Given "its all rubbish" Ill check the Sri Lanka online news to see what is happening "in NZ" for the cricket test

engedib

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#2183612 19-Feb-2019 13:46

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/110673386/publisher-nzme-plans-to-have-online-paywall-by-end-of-june

DaveDog

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#2183630 19-Feb-2019 14:07

I'm yet to see anything on there that's worth paying for that cannot be sourced elsewhere anyway...

But best of luck to them I guess...

engedib:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/110673386/publisher-nzme-plans-to-have-online-paywall-by-end-of-june

mattwnz

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#2183685 19-Feb-2019 14:49

JimmyH:

Maybe. But rushing to implement a paywall won't do them much good unless they have a product worth paying for. And at the moment, I don't see many people who seem to think that they do.

According to what I read it said that 10,000 would be paying for a subscription. But are the paywall parts just going to be the 'premium sections'.

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#2184053 20-Feb-2019 07:12

I know some here are allergic to The Spinoff because they think it's all silly opinion guff (which some of it is, but you're missing out on some very thoughtful stuff if you write it off altogether). But anyway, their daily briefing/newsletter had this to say this morning:

Some may choose to focus on the fact that opinion pieces will also go behind the paywall, and opt not to go for it on the basis that some columnists produce garbage. Some might also look at the front page of the NZ Herald site, look at some of the dreadful clickbait on it, and conclude that there's nothing on the site worth paying for. Both of these conclusions would be wrong.

Regardless of whether or not you sign up for the paywall, Mike Hosking will keep his job. Syndicated nonsense from sites like news.com.au will still be run up the flagpole. But every digital subscription will give true investigators like Matt Nippert and Kirsty Johnston more time and space to break big stories. It will mean features and commentary from insightful writers like Simon Wilson, Claire Trevett and Matthew Hooton will be affordable for the company. And it will mean the newsroom – which is one of only a few in NZ who are actually capable of the sort of vitally important wide general news coverage that is often taken for granted – will be in a slightly safer financial position. I for one will be putting my money where my mouth is when the paywall is announced.

That's a fair point, and I personally will take it into consideration.

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