No more paywall at the Journal de Montréal

“Autre nouvelle importante”, it starts, burying the lead a bit: The Journal de Montréal announced on Wednesday that all content on its website will now be free. Ditto for the Journal de Québec. No more paywall on either site.

The Quebecor-owned paid newspapers instituted their paywalls in 2012, putting some content behind it but leaving other content free. At the time, the purpose of the paywall was to protect the print edition’s subscription fees.

So what’s changed? La Presse asked, and the answer is basically that their priorities have changed: with the rise of social media, reach has become more important, and a paywall is a hindrance to that.

So the Journal falls back onto advertising as the primary source of digital revenue, even though digital advertising hasn’t exactly taken off. It’s in that line that it signed up for Facebook’s Instant Articles, which allows JdeM stories to be read directly in people’s Facebook feeds. Publishers can include ads in the feeds, which is supposed to be a way to increase revenue.

Other Canadian launch partners for Instant Articles are Chatelaine, Diply, The Huffington Post Canada, Maclean’s, Sportsnet, The Canadian Press and TVA Nouvelles, plus some international media like BuzzFeed.

The Journal de Montréal’s decision isn’t that surprising considering the context. Its competitors in francophone news, including La Presse, Radio-Canada, RDS, TVA Nouvelles, Métro and others don’t have paywalls. Le Devoir is the only major francophone publication that still has one up, and it’s not searching for as many hits as possible.

On the English side, we’ve seen the Toronto Star drop its paywall, but The Globe and Mail and Postmedia (my employer) still have them, porous as they may be. And they put them up after concluding it was a mistake to have content online free in the first place. Will they follow suit in determining it was a mistake to consider that a mistake?

The decision would be much easier if online advertising was a viable revenue source.

Meanwhile, this decision means the Journal de Montréal and Journal de Québec will be even more eager for as many clicks (or taps or whatever) as possible. There’s a huge incentive for clickbait, so don’t be surprised if it increases.

7 thoughts on “No more paywall at the Journal de Montréal

  1. Margaret Sjoholm-Franks

    We readers should be paid for reading the never-ending threnodies and the drivel written by Matthieu Bock-Côté

    Reply
    1. Fagstein Post author

      We readers should be paid for reading the never-ending threnodies and the drivel written by Matthieu Bock-Côté

      Or you could, you know, just not read it.

      Reply
      1. Margaret Sjoholm-Franks

        Not that I do, twice was enough

        Do you always give those snarky retorts?

        Sometimes I suspect you are a 15 yr. old girl….I am wondering

        Reply
        1. Fagstein Post author

          Not that I do, twice was enough

          So you read a columnist twice and now you feel entitled to prejudge every other column he writes?

          Sometimes I suspect you are a 15 yr. old girl….I am wondering

          My identity is not a secret.

          Reply
  2. Dilbert

    “he decision would be much easier if online advertising was a viable revenue source.”

    If you make it hard to access the content, or charge money for people to access the content, then you significantly and drastically reduce both the number of readers and thus reduce the value of advertising.

    Taking down paywalls has a very negative effect to start, as the revenue stream dries up. But over time the ability for users to discuss your article and share link to them via social media is a truly huge plus. A good advertising system that presents geo appropriate adverting to users outside of the local readership can also end up driving some good revenue.

    The problem for newspapers continues to be the sheer number of (expensive) people requires to turn out a daily edition. Online works thinner with a lot less overheadl

    Reply
  3. Frank Schwimmer

    The only way I would read a rag like Le Journal de Montreal is being free…and still I won’t now that it is free

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *