End to ‘free beer’ era for web as top German daily announces paywall
BERLIN — Germany’s largest newspaper publisher will introduce a paywall for its flagship national daily, Die Welt, by the end of this year and is confident competitors will follow suit, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner said.In an interview with news agency Reuters, Mr Doepfner said he believed the ruinous "free beer for everyone" era of giving content away on the internet may be ending, as paying users are not only proving more valuable for publishers, but crucially for advertisers too."It’s a risk and there’s no guarantee that it’ll work out, but I’m more optimistic than I was a year or two ago," Mr Doepfner said of the foray into subscription-based offerings where online users will have to pay for news they have been getting for free."We’ll be alone for a while, but I’ve been positively surprised by how many comments I’ve been hearing from other publishers saying they’re getting ready for it too," said Mr Doepfner, 49, in his spartan office atop the 20-storey Springer building t...
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