Facebook paywall | Web Design and Content Marketing

TheStreet has broke news on developments at Facebook regarding a new service that would allow publishers to setup subscriptions for media companies. Campbell Brown is Facebook's head of news partnerships, and recently spoke at Digital Publishing Innovation Summit in New York. The Street reported: "One of the things we heard in our initial meetings from many newspapers and digital publishers is that 'we want a subscription product -- we want to be able to see a paywall in Facebook.'" - Campbell Brown The elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about is how well paywalls do outside of Facebook overall. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have been able to build success with a paywall, but smaller and midsize outlets continue to struggle to provide in-depth analysis on topics that is worth paying for in comparison to the WSJ and NYT. Local news sites might build a strong following if the opt out to not setup the paywalls. It is very possible that people will not want to pay for news on Facebook, and will search only for media companies that do not setup the paywall. It is interesting to see the media outlets look to split revenue with Facebook over a task of a consumer just bypassing Facebook, and going directly to a news site for content. What is the purpose of Facebook if they charge to help you find content? Why not just subscribe directly from the news organization? Overall, I think that this new system has been pushed back for years, along with ads that roll into front of videos, because most users will not spend the time or money to pay for a service that they are very use to getting for free.

Facebook Plans to Start Using a Paywall for News Publishers starting in October