With paid site, Reuters faces stiff competition

Laura Hazard Owen of Nieman Lab writes about the competition that Reuters faces by charging for access to its website.

Owen writes, “Who deems Reuters.com so essential that they’ll pay more than two Netflixes a month for it? In 2011, Ken Doctor wrote for us about the competition the news company faced as it tried to become better known in the consumer world:

Competition is all around, as other companies morph to meet similar challenges. There’s Bloomberg, whose hot breath Reuters can feel as the company aims to eat some of TR’s core business, with the Financial Times and News Corp’s Dow Jones taking more targeted aim, and The Economist, the Times, and AP all competing for differing parts of the business.

“A decade later, Reuters faces more competition than ever. Bloomberg added a paywall in 2018 (also a decision that some found baffling) and currently charges $34.99 a month for a digital subscription, though hefty discount offers abound. The company expects to ‘approach’ 400,000 consumer subscriptions this year, up from 250,000 in 2020. A lot of those subscriptions are probably expensed. Reuters, aiming at a professional audience, is also likely hoping that many subscribers won’t blink at sticking that $420 a year on their corporate cards.”

Read more here.