The CEO of Fairfax Media, Greg Hywood, made a very interesting comment at the end of a lecture on journalism last night:”Don’t rule out (Fairfax) not having paywalls.”It will no doubt send a shudder through the new CEO of News Ltd, Kim Williams. News is in the process of putting The Australian behind a paywall, and so far the three-month trial has seen its page impressions decline by 25 per cent – far less than might have been expected, actually, and certainly less than its traffic will decline once it starts charging. That’s especially so if the Fairfax digital editions remain free.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-16/kohler-papers-paywalls-and-crunching-the-numbers/3673926