Slovakia is latest to prove subscription model online

Home page of Dennik N

Contrary to all the predictions about the public's unwillingness to pay for news when it is freely available online, more publishers of high-quality, in-depth reporting are making money.

The latest example comes from Slovakia, as recounted by Rob Sharp in Nieman Lab. The editors of a popular national newspaper there discovered that a news organization tainted by corruption accusations was about to buy a significant stake in their paper.

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Anticipating restrictions on their work, the editor, Matus Kostolny, and a team of his lieutenants decided to start an independent online news publication, Dennik N.

As Sharp describes:

The outlet attracted €1 million of private investment and advanced subscriptions of around €300,000. They launched their daily website in January 2015, and a printed paper shortly afterward. Now, just over two years later, they are among the top five quality newspaper websites in Slovakia. In a country of 5.4 million people, the paper has 23,000 paying digital subscribers, the most nationally, and 110,000 registered readers.

Language barrier helps publisher paywalls

Europe is a patchwork of dozens of different languages, and news media now see this as an opportunity. They are banding together to charge for internet access to local-language products.

Dutch and Flemish publishers are the latest in Europe to consider erecting a shared paywall around  content in their languages, Paid Content reports.

The concept is already under way in Slovakia and Slovenia, where Piano Media has gotten media outlets to create a shared-payment system.