Estadão will start charging for online content in 2014.
Since December 2012, Estadão.com.br has used a format called a signwall, which restricts free access to reports and articles; starting in the first half of next year, the online version will switch to a paywall model; "I believe that the future of quality journalism lies in paid subscriptions," said the content director of Grupo Estado, Ricardo Gandour.
Nathália Carvalho, from Communicate - Access to content published on the online version of Estadão will be charged starting in the first half of next year. The strategy was revealed by the content director of Grupo Estado, Ricardo Gandour, during the 2013 edition of INMA, a seminar held in São Paulo this week.
Since December 2012, Estadão.com.br has been using a format called a signwall, in which internet users have free access to a certain number of news reports and articles, but must register to read the content provided by the site without restriction, receiving a login and password, but without having to pay for it.
Gandour, when announcing the arrival of the paid subscription model to the portal he manages, reinforced that the format should grow among the country's media outlets. “In the first half of next year we will adopt the paywall. I believe the paid model will prosper, but we have to deal with the adoption curve. I believe the future of quality journalism lies in paid subscriptions,” he said, without specifying the exact date when the format will be adopted.
At the INMA International Seminar 2013, the Grupo Estado executive participated in the panel “How are major newspapers reinventing themselves?”, alongside Sérgio Dávila (executive editor of Folha de S. Paulo), Ascânio Seleme (editor-in-chief of O Globo), and Marta Gleich (editor-in-chief of Zero Hora). An article from Comunique-se details the strategies of these four groups, in addition to statements from Jader Barbalho Filho (CEO of Diário do Pará) and Guilherme Vieira (digital platforms manager of Gazeta Jornais).