La Nacion, El Financiero begin charging for online access

June 16^th, 2015 (InsideCostaRica.com) Grupo La Nacion (GN), Costa Rica’s largest news publisher, began charging for online access to its flagship newspaper La Nacion and its business and finance newspaper, El Financerio on Tuesday.

Subscriptions for online access are ¢3,000 per month, billed separately for each publication.  Those who do no wish to subscribe are able to view up to 15 articles per month at no cost, the publisher said in a statement.

Those who subscribe to the print editions of the newspapers will receive online access for no additional cost.

The publisher said it was following in the path of other major newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times, which also charge for online access.

“Quality digital journalism requires investment, and as such requires its own income,” said Armando Gonzalez, director of La Nacion.

Many news publishers have struggled to financially adapt to the economics of online publishing, where advertising revenues are significantly lower than in print and readers are reluctant to pay for news.

The advent of Internet publishing resulted in the introduction of different advertising models, namely “cost-per-click (CPC)” whereas advertisers usually pay only a few cents each time their ad is clicked; and “CPM,” where advertisers pay a set amount for every 1,000 ad “views” – generally just a few dollars.

While national news publishers in large countries like the United States – where sites can expect tens of millions of page views per month – have for the most part made these models work due to economies of scale, the economics have proven difficult for publishers in smaller countries and publishers serving niche audiences.

News publishers are also facing increased competition for advertising dollars from social media sites such as Facebook.  As such sites have significantly more data about their visitors than does a typical news publisher, sites like Facebook are able to offer far more options to specifically target ads to individual visitors’ demographics, such as specific interests, age, and gender.