A User-First Framework for Sustaining Local News - Harvard ...

examples of successful entrepreneurs in this segment interested in tweaking their
business models to direct some of that government news to a wider audience of users. In
Denmark, former TV reporter Rasmus Nielsen makes available, without charge, a
portion of his niche reports about the Danish Parliament to a general readership. 51 Craig
Sandler, who publishes similar, high‐priced services tracking state government in
Florida and Massachusetts, is also working on a consumer edition with more modest
fees. 52
Foundations have been helpful in encouraging nonprofit initiatives aimed at filling
some of the gaps users are finding in government news and information as a result of
cutbacks. Sites like Connecticut Mirror, which launched in January 2010, are also taking
significant strides in making sense of government reporting. Among its features: An
Editor’s Choice service that provides users with a one‐stop aggregation of news about
government and politics throughout the state, similar to Jim Romenesko’s news about
news on Poynter Online. Connecticut Mirror says it does not anticipate charging users. 53
Among the paid content experiments in the entertainment area was the 2003
decision by The Los Angeles Times to put its popular CalendarLive entertainment section
behind a pay wall. In a mini case study of the initiative, the Nieman Journalism Lab’s
Tim Windsor reported that the move generated about $63,000 from the $39.95‐a‐year
subscription fee and attracted about 19,000 registered users, 15,000 of them print
subscribers who paid no online fee. Windsor noted an audience drop from 729,000
visitors in July 2003 to the 19,000 registered visitors after the subscription requirement
was imposed. Losses in ad revenue were not reported, but The Times removed the pay
wall about 21 months after it went up. “If it was a success,” he added, “there was never
a press release heralding that fact.” 54
The latest test of the paid content model is underway on Long Island, where Newsday
installed a $5 per week subscription fee in November 2009. Two months after imposing
the pay wall, Newsday reported that only 35 people had purchased an online‐only
subscription. The idea of the pay wall in this case, though, is not generating new
revenue from out‐of‐market customers but securing the site’s value to users on Long
Island. 55
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