California biz journal erects paywall

The Central Valley Business Times in Stockton, Calif., has started charging for its online content.

Editor Doug Caldwell writes, “Newsrooms used to be supported by advertising. It’s well known that ads have flocked to the Internet from newspapers and, to some extent other media. Less known is that Google and Facebook get most of that ad money. The local Internet publisher seldom gets enough “page views” to generate revenue.

“Publishers across the country, including most in the Central Valley, have built ‘pay walls’ to help generate revenue. The jury is still out on whether these things work, but we think in our case, with a modest overhead, a modest paywall return will be the best business model.

“So after ten years and more than 26,600 stories, videos and audio interviews all offered for free, starting July 6 CVBT will be asking you to subscribe.

“We will use Tinypass to accept your credit card securely. Newspapers nationwide are using Tinypass so we have confidence that it will work well for you.”

Read more here.