CNN To Test Drive A Metered Paywall

 

The most-visited news website in the United States is trying out a paywall.

In early October, CNN will begin experimenting with charging some readers for digital access as part of a bid to shore up its business as cable television erodes industrywide, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.

The NY Times reports the company is planning a so-called metered model, which will require the site’s habitual users to pay after reading a certain number of articles, the people said. Many other publishers, including The New York Times and The New Yorker, have used metered paywalls to generate subscriptions over the past decade.

The starting price of a subscription is unclear. But the two people said that CNN would start with an inexpensive offering to gauge customer demand.

The subscription wall is one of the first major business initiatives from Mark Thompson, CNN’s chairman and chief executive, who joined the network nearly a year ago. Mr. Thompson said in a memo to employees this year that technology would allow CNN to deliver journalism that readers “will pay for” and later said that the company would try out a paywall.

CNN.com, which draws hundreds of millions of visitors every month, is a potential life raft for the network amid declining cable viewership. But those users are not accustomed to paying for news on CNN’s website, necessitating a delicate approach. The people briefed on the plan said that CNN would be monitoring its audience to see how readers react to the paywall, adjusting if necessary.

This isn’t the network’s first foray into digital subscriptions in recent years. Under Jeff Zucker, CNN’s former top executive, the network started CNN+, an expansive streaming service with exclusive content from boldface anchors like Jake Tapper, Chris Wallace and Anderson Cooper. The service was ultimately shut down after leaders of CNN’s new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, decided it was too expensive.