CNN To Lock Content Behind Paywall ‘As Cable Television Erodes Industrywide’: Report

CNN will begin locking online content behind a paywall next month in an effort to increase revenue “as cable television erodes industrywide,” The New York Times reported on Thursday.

According to the Times, which cited two unnamed sources familiar with the network’s plans, CNN “will begin experimenting” with charging readers to gain access to online content in October “as part of a bid to shore up its business as cable television erodes industrywide.”

CNN’s paywall will reportedly require readers to pay money to access content after they have surpassed the number of free articles available to non-subscribers.

While the report did not reveal exactly how much it would cost to get past CNN’s paywall, the two unnamed sources told the Times that subscriptions would start out “inexpensive” in an effort to “gauge customer demand.”

In January, just months after he was named CEO of CNN Worldwide, Mark Thompson hinted at a CNN subscription model in a memo to staffers.

“The traditional TV universe is shrinking steadily,” Thompson warned. “The shift from linear broadcast to digital means that the audience for all news channels on US cable has fallen by roughly a fifth in just the past two years. TV remains an important way of reaching some loyal audiences, but the critical revenue we currently derive from it is increasingly under threat.”

He continued:

So far CNN has been slow to respond to the challenge. Perhaps that’s not surprising: the CNN of today is no longer that buccaneering outsider but a tenured incumbent. You still see our strength when big stories break. We still sport brilliant on-air, digital and producing talent and have one of the world’s most visited news websites. But, despite all these strengths, there’s currently too little innovation and risk-taking. Like so many other news players with a broadcast heritage, CNN’s linear services and even its website can sometimes have an old-fashioned and unadventurous feel as if the world has changed and they haven’t.

While Thompson acknowledged that new technology had been “disrupting” the network’s “traditional revenue,” he concluded that the situation allowed CNN “many new opportunities to reach audiences and deliver the kind of quality journalism they will pay for.”

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