Reuters plans to put many articles behind a paywall

Reuters is planning on putting many of its articles behind a subscription paywall, the news service told employees, reports Tim Dotan of The INformation.

Dotan reports, “Reuters would become one of the last free news services to adopt a subscription business model, a sign of how much the news industry has shifted away from relying on advertising.

“The current plan, outlined to Reuters employees last month, envisions putting all articles coming from specific coverage areas—such as energy, sustainability and its opinion content Breaking Views—behind a paywall by next February. A Reuters spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“In 2018, Reuters’ closest competitor Bloomberg put its stories behind a paywall; the company hasn’t disclosed how many people have signed up, although it has said the figures have surpassed internal expectations. Over the past few years, most major newspapers and magazines have adopted paywalls. Some, such as the New York Times, have had great success: the Times said it had 4 million digital subscribers as of March 30.

“In the internal announcement, Reuters also said it was going to be redesigning its homepage to better highlight digital advertising. The company further stated it would no longer rely on outside ad tech companies to provide data to target people on the site.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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Stacy Harris says:
July 6, 2020 at 6:15 pm
Big mistake.
At a time when magazines (Time, People) and newspapers (U.S.A. Today and your local Gannett-owned daily) have abadonded their "letters to the editor" sections there's less reason for engaged readers to stick with them.
The only pay walls I accept are nondigital, home-delivered (hard copy) information- and I will continue to renew those until they are no longer available.