Master Thesis Report
The Anatomy of a Paywall
Insights and recommendations on charging for online news
Mattias Cederberg
Acknowledgements
The content of this report would not have been made possible with-
out the aid and support of a select group of people. First, I would
like to express my special thanks of gratitude towards the Ume˚ a office
of Daresay and Jonas Lampe for the guidance and encouragement
throughout the process of this work. Second, I would like to com-
mend Per Kvarnbrink for the gratifying discussions and moral sup-
port, helping to see the entirety of this report to the end. Third, I
extend my sincere gratitude to Marie Albinsson, Lars Lundberg and
their team at VK Media for the valuable insights and ideas that heav-
ily influenced the course of this work. Fourth, I would like to thank
my peer-review group; Emelie Andersson, Emil Ottoson, and Fanny
Gylling, for their feedback and support during the progress of the re-
port. Finally, I want to thank each and every one of the participants
of the interviews, survey, and discussions.
Abstract
In the wake of digitalization and recent technological innovation, news consumers have increasingly moved to online spaces to access news.
As changes in consumer behavior appear even within these new con-
texts, several legacy news publishers that are often linked with high
journalistic quality and trust are struggling to monetize on their con-
tent. In such struggles, an increasingly common sight over the last
couple of years is the implementation of paywalls; digital boundaries
that require consumers to pay before accessing content. This work
applies a design thinking approach, utilizing a mixed-method method-
ology by interviews, surveys, workshops, prototyping, and testing, to
explore the users’ experiences of navigating this landscape, while at
the same time taking the perspective of legacy news publishers into
account. The first part of the report entails the identification of a
set of design challenges in this regard. The second part focuses on
one such challenge—the onboarding experience of paying readership
online—and explores possible solutions where the experience of the
users and the business of legacy news publishers can merge. It ar-
gues that, while still inducing some degree of irritation in the users,
a registration-first model with multiple choices to pay is likely to cre-
ate new opportunities for news publishers as they seek to charge for
content online, while at the same time being appealing to a larger au-
dience. However, the role of the relationship between the individual
reader and the content itself was identified as absolutely central in
increasing the value perception of news online.
Contents
1 Introduction 7
1.1 Thesis Objective . . . . 8
1.2 Daresay . . . . 9
2 Background and Theoretical Framework 10 2.1 News Consumption Trends . . . . 10
2.1.1 Using social media platforms and messaging apps for news 12 2.1.2 Ambient exposure and news avoidance . . . . 14
2.1.3 The increasing popularity of ad-blockers . . . . 15
2.2 The Decline of Print . . . . 16
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls . . . . 19
2.3.1 Hard paywall . . . . 19
2.3.2 Soft paywall . . . . 20
2.3.3 Augmented paywall . . . . 22
2.3.4 Willingness to pay . . . . 25
2.4 Design Theory . . . . 26
2.4.1 Design thinking . . . . 26
2.4.2 Activity Theory . . . . 28
3 Part 1: Identifying the challenges 32
CONTENTS
3.1 Method . . . . 32
3.1.1 Interview: Young adults . . . . 33
3.1.2 Interview: Regional news company . . . . 34
3.1.3 Interview: Telecom Magazine . . . . 34
3.2 Findings . . . . 35
3.2.1 Friction concerning contextual comprehension of news . . . 35
3.2.2 User-centered on-boarding of paying readership . . . . 36
3.2.3 Activity-centered user experience . . . . 36
3.2.4 User experience of ambient news . . . . 37
3.3 Discussion . . . . 37
4 Part 2: (Re)defining a paywall 41 4.1 Method . . . . 41
4.1.1 Ideation Workshop . . . . 42
4.1.2 Prototyping . . . . 44
4.1.3 Testing . . . . 49
4.1.4 Limitations . . . . 51
4.2 Results . . . . 51
4.2.1 Prototype . . . . 51
4.2.2 Testing . . . . 55
4.3 Discussion . . . . 59
5 Conclusion 62 5.1 Closing remarks . . . . 63
References 72
List of Figures
2.1 Response to question ”Thinking about how you got news online (via computer, mobile or any device) in the last week, which were
the ways in which you came across news stories?” . . . . 11
2.2 The decline of news site referrals from Facebook. . . . 13
2.3 Digital advertising market between 2004 and 2018. . . . 16
2.4 Circulation of newspapers in the US. . . . 17
2.5 The hard paywall as implemented by The Times. . . . 20
2.6 The NY Times modal informing the user of how many articles they have left on their free access meter this month. . . . 21
2.7 The freemium model as implemented by The Telegraph, where locked content is denoted with a ”PREMIUM”-tag. . . . 22
2.8 Information collected by newspapers from new digital subscribers. 24 2.9 The design thinking process. . . . 28
2.10 The Engestr¨om activity system model. . . . 29
3.1 The ”empathize” and ”define”-phase of the design thinking process covered in this chapter. . . . 33
3.2 The prioritization matrix juxtaposing the four challenges based on
their perceived business and UX value. . . . 40
LIST OF FIGURES
4.1 The three phases of the design thinking process covered in this
chapter. . . . 41
4.2 Pictures from the workshop. . . . 42
4.3 Workshop roadmap. . . . 43
4.4 Flowchart representing the interaction outcomes as a user access the news site directly in their browser. . . . 47
4.5 Flowchart representing the interaction outcomes as a user access the news site by using a link to a specific article. . . . 48
4.6 A selection of the lo-fi sketches. . . . 49
4.7 The conventional freemium paywall used for testing. . . . 50
4.8 The landing page for out-logged users. . . . 52
4.9 The free access o↵er. . . . 53
4.10 Displaying the features of the ”Premium” o↵er. . . . 53
4.11 A modal that displays once the registration is succeeded. . . . 54
4.12 The paywall concept that triggers once the free access meter is depleted. . . . 55
4.13 The gender distribution. . . . 55
4.14 The age distribution. . . . 55
4.15 Response to question ”Do you have access to any paid online news service?” . . . . 56
4.16 Response to question ”Would you leave any of the following in exchange for more premium news content?” . . . . 57
4.17 User actions in the pay-first concept. . . . 58
4.18 User actions in the register-first concept. . . . 58
Chapter 1 Introduction
The rise of web 2.0—the network-centric successor of web 1.0—allowed internet users to customize, interact with, and participate in the web in revolutionary new ways, creating a user experience far surpassing that of its predecessors static
”page metaphor” [1]. In the realm of online news, this new ”architecture of participation” has allowed citizens to openly share their views and opinions on a global platform, giving rise to a news publishing power shift from traditional journalists and the elite to just about anyone with access to the internet, including novel actors such as bloggers, influencers and bots.
On the one hand, this technological development provides a framework en-
forcing freedom of speech and other key democratic values. On the other, it
threatens the very same by facilitating a shift of responsibility concerning certain
journalistic moral virtues previously upheld by legacy news organizations such
as objectivity, justice, and integrity. As digital intermediaries such as social me-
dia platforms are struggling to fill these new shoes, a study by Reuters Institute
spanning nearly 40 countries found a mere 24% of the respondents believing they
are doing a good job separating fact from fiction [2]. The result is the quality
check of news content being further displaced towards the readership, increasing
1.1 Thesis Objective
their need for media literacy [3], and causing some of them to opt-out of news consumption completely [4].
In e↵ect, these transformations have grown to empower the gatekeepers of news while legacy newspaper companies are forced to scale down their rosters of employees and to rethink their eroded business models to stay market relevant [2][5][6]. At the same time, audience behavior is changing within this digital ecology - the previously increasing means of accessing and spreading news through social media has given in to the more private communication space of messaging apps, alleviating users from the public’s gaze on social networking platforms [2][7].
This more recent development makes it interesting to explore what factors a↵ect the experience of the users in such novel news consumption contexts, as well as how they relate to the state of legacy news media. It is this area of inquiry that is the point of departure of this work.
1.1 Thesis Objective
This work aims to explore the fast-paced ecology of online news from a user- centered perspective by implementing a mixed-method approach to address two research objectives:
(1) To, through the lens of activity theory, qualitatively identify and an- alyze some of the key areas a↵ecting the user experience of digital news consumption negatively in contemporary user contexts, and
(2) to provide a set of insights and policies regarding paywall implemen-
tation by designing and evaluating a novel take on an onboarding model for
an online news service.
1.2 Daresay
The approach towards these objectives, divided into two parts described in chapters 3 and 4 respectively, is largely inspired by the iterative, user-centered design thinking approach as presented by Norman and Nielsen’s NNGroup [8].
Drawing upon the research and reports within the topic of online news, the first part concerns the identification and analysis of a set of design challenges related to the user experience of contemporary contexts of news consumption. The second part fixates on one of those challenges, the on-boarding of paying readership and composes a design proposition which is then tested and analyzed.
1.2 Daresay
This work is written in conjunction with digital agency Daresay. Daresay is a
Swedish company based in Stockholm, Malm¨o and Ume˚ a that strives to design,
build, launch and manage digital products with human beings in mind. They are
currently improving collaboration in hospitals, developing health and bank apps,
defining digital services for telecom providers, driving cultural change in govern-
mental agencies and connecting people’s homes amongst several other projects
[9].
Chapter 2
Background and Theoretical Framework
The landscape of journalism has sustained disruptive changes over the course of the last decades due to the emergence of new technology driving a changing au- dience behavior increasingly promoting digital spaces. The temporal constraints of print newspaper distribution and news program broadcasts are being phased out to the favor of instant, everywhere and anytime, access to news online, often through various digital intermediaries such as social media, mobile applications, and search engines [4][10]. Drawing upon research articles and industry reports, this chapter attempts to deliberate on such trends, their implications relating to legacy news media organizations, and their e↵ect on the users experiencing them.
2.1 News Consumption Trends
With the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, Johann Guten- berg set the stage for the phenomenon to be known as mass communication.
This technological development revolutionized the previously manual process of
2.1 News Consumption Trends
copying text. As the rate and reach of the written word increased, its contents changed to be more appealing to the plurality of urban, secular audiences and in e↵ect, it transformed the public spheres of medieval Europe [11]. Several decades later Marshall McLuhan outlined in his seminal book Understanding Media the notion of how it is the medium, not the content, that drives social and cultural change [12]. As it applied to the evolution of the printing press, it applied to the emergence of the radio in the 1920s, to the entrance of television in the 1950s, and seemingly now more than ever, to the digital mediums by which we interact with news in the internet era.
A recent poll of adults in the US found how access to news by television, while still dominant, is declining to the favor of online sources [13]. Among these online sources, looking at the preferred online medium for news by age, figure 2.1 illustrates how accessing news through digital intermediaries is the most prevalent in the younger generations, while the older prefer direct access.
Figure 2.1: Response to question ”Thinking about how you got news online (via computer, mobile or any device) in the last week, which were the ways in which you came across news stories?”
Source: Reuters Institute ([7])
Although leading to new opportunities concerning the distribution and con-
2.1 News Consumption Trends
sumption of news, these trends also surface some major implications. While Reuters Institute has found how legacy news media brands with broadcasting backgrounds and long heritages are trusted the most [7], several such actors have found themselves in difficult spots while adapting to the new technological land- scape and changing audience behavior.
2.1.1 Using social media platforms and messaging apps for news
In their 2016 Digital News Report, Reuters Institute detailed the ongoing trend of using social media to access news, especially prevalent amongst the younger generations. In their sample, more than half of the respondents used social media to access news every week and 12% used it as their primary source with Facebook as the dominant platform [14]. There are some interesting benefits to this trend.
Although news consumption within such platforms have been linked to negative e↵ects such as the facilitation of filter bubbles and echo-chambers due to their algorithm-driven nature, the opposite has also been found true in the sense that users are exposed to out of the ordinary sources contesting their political beliefs [15]. A similar e↵ect was also found in news consumption trough search engines [16].
In their two most recent Digital News Reports, however, they detail how
audiences are moving to the more private communication space of messaging apps
such as Messenger and Whatsapp [2][7]. This shift is considered to be driven by
a set of converging reasons mainly culminating in the decrease of news content
being posted and shared on Facebook specifically. One reason is the notion of
how the open nature of such platforms allows for unwanted, toxic debates to
occur, and as means of escaping this, audiences have moved to alternatives where
they have more control of the content they interact with and how and by whom
2.1 News Consumption Trends
Figure 2.2: The decline of news site referrals from Facebook.
Source: Reuters Institute ([7])
it is received. Another driving force significantly decreasing news site traffic from Facebook is the alterations Facebook has applied to their algorithm in the last couple of years, increasingly putting ”friends and family at the core of the experience” [17] (See figure 2.2).
Apart from the obvious absence of control legacy news brands have over the
distribution of their content in channels like these, there are further implications
that in a greater sense also apply to the messaging apps. Readers who arrive at
news sites from digital intermediaries such as social media and search have been
found to both spend less time on the site as well as to be less likely to return to it
[18]. This means that both the news filtering power and the compensation to the
publishers, which often are the legacy news brands, is decreasing [19]. Further, a
study in the UK found that the majority of the 1500 respondents could remember
the path by which they accessed a news story, while less than half could remember
2.1 News Consumption Trends
the news brand creating the content [2]. The same study reported how it is the platform that often receives the credit for the breaking of news stories rather than the publisher, further eroding their attribution and recognition.
2.1.2 Ambient exposure and news avoidance
A recent study identified how young adults are exposed to news through a three- stage process [20]. Through routine surveillance, they encounter news by check- ing their phones, mobile apps, or by receiving newsletter alerts by email. The objective of this behaviour is to do a quick scan of world events. By Directed consumption, attention is driven towards a news story by a personal interest or a certain importance concerning the article. It is characterized by the reader seek- ing additional information concerning a specific news story. Incidental exposure entails the unintended consumption of news by word of mouth or social media for example, where the reader is engulfed in another activity or at a moment of leisure [10].
In such a process, routine surveillance and directed access are cases of more active news consumption, while incidental exposure rhymes with the increasingly popular trend of avoiding news, sometimes altogether. In the 2018 Digital News Report, 29% of the sample expressed how they often or sometimes avoid seeking news. Reasons given were news items having a negative e↵ect on their mood or that they can’t rely on the validity of the content they come in contact with.
This news avoidance was especially notable in politically charged environments [7].
Pursuing this behavior, To↵ and Nielsen [4] identified three folk theories driv-
ing such behavior. ”News finds me”, ”the information is out there” and ”I don’t
know what to believe”. The first two were found to be more common, often linked
with social media access through Facebook and search access through Google re-
2.1 News Consumption Trends
spectively. The third, ”I don’t know what to believe” was less frequent and often linked to low media literacy and limited faith in political processes and institu- tions.
There are a number of issues concerning these emerging trends. To↵ and Nielsen found that while news avoiders were exposed to a great deal of news items, the political learning associated with their behavior was moderate in comparison to that of consumers actively seeking information [4]. The results of a study interviewing 50 18–29 year-olds enforces this notion, showing how incidental news reading practices often are partial and brief, as such consumers tend to mostly focus on headlines, images and leads [10].
2.1.3 The increasing popularity of ad-blockers
Among fragmented distributed access and news avoiders, another developing neg- ative trend as seen from the perspective of legacy news publishers is the increasing popularity of ad-blockers. Reuters Institute recently found how 27% use an ad- blocker globally [7]. That number was highest in Greece and Portugal, with 42% and 34% respectively. In 2016, a large number of France’s top publishers launched a co-op initiative to counter this issue. Once a user tried accessing one of their sites with an active ad-blocker they were instead confronted with a mes- sage prompting them to either disable it or to pay for a subscription [21]. For LeMonde, one of the participants, the proportion of traffic utilizing ad-blockers has since plateaued on desktop at 25 percent, but its yet rising on mobile access, currently at 15% [22].
In terms of the digital advertising market in general, it is flourishing. PwC
reported digital advertising revenue surpassing $100 billion for the first time in
2018 [23]. That is a 21.8% increase from the previous year. However impressive
that might be, it is to little benefit to the legacy news media as 85 cents of every
2.2 The Decline of Print
Figure 2.3: Digital advertising market between 2004 and 2018.
Source: PwC ([23])
new dollar spent on online advertising is estimated to go to either Google or Facebook [24]. Further, figure 2.3 illustrates findings by PwC of how 75% of the market is owned by the top ten companies, while the same report communicates a -6.9% decrease in newspaper advertising.
2.2 The Decline of Print
In addition to adapting to the above-mentioned digital trends, several legacy news publishers are dealing with the expenses related to running an, often declining, print operation.
Figure 2.4 illustrates the circulation of weekday and Sunday papers in the
US, which has been on a steady decline since the 1990s. As an e↵ect, news-
room employment has decreased by 45% in the US between 2004–2017 [25], and
there was a 40% cutback in the UK between 2009–2014 [26]. 2018 has been a
tumultuous year for several of the Swedish legacy media companies as well. Most
notably MittMedia, the owner of 28 local newspapers, was sold earlier this year to
2.2 The Decline of Print
Figure 2.4: Circulation of newspapers in the US.
Source: Pew Research Center ([25])
Swedish Bonnier and Norwegian Amedia [27]. 51% of Stampen Media, owner of 13 newspapers and recent survivor of two business reconstructions, was recently sold to a consortium of Norwegian Schibsted owned Polaris, NWT Media and VK Media [28]. Further, following the application of a business reconstruction, 30 of the 140 newsroom employees of the Swedish subsidiary of free access news publisher Metro International were let go [29].
Parts of the reasons behind the struggle to adapt to these online trends could
be explained by looking at the history of online news. Amid the booming upsurge
of the internet during the 1990s, legacy newspaper companies, like companies in
many other industries, rushed to provide their services in this new connected
space. The vast majority of them did so by providing free access to their content,
thus primarily relying on an advertising revenue model [30]. This remained the
online strategy for the plurality of newspapers up until the 2008 financial crisis,
which was the breaking point where most newspapers realized they needed to
re-think their business model in the online space. That year, large and midsized
2.2 The Decline of Print
newspapers in the US experienced an average decline in revenue of 15%, while newspapers with circulation under 100.000, i.e. local newspapers, experienced an average decrease of 2% [31].
Not charging for news content has since been considered the ”original sin” of early internet adopters by the likes of industry figures such as media economics expert Alan Mutter [32] and the inventor of the pop-up ad (since the director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT), Ethan Zuckerman [33]. While Zuckerman’s critique has a more general aim towards the ad-driven model of the early internet, Mutter argues that by providing free content online, news publishers e↵ectively cut the demand of their physical flagship products, i.e., the printed newspapers, and were, therefore, crippling one of their main revenue streams. This has then been said to have given rise to the ’substitution e↵ect’, described by Goyanes [34]
as such:
”Since the majority of online newspapers are for free, in many cases the willingness to pay for information could be much higher than the price of the online newspaper (that is zero), producing, therefore, a clear customer surplus. In this sense, online news has been charac- terized by a demand curve at the price of zero, whereas if the price increases even by a single cent, demand drops to zero. Because sub- stitutes for online news are available, cross-price elasticity is high, so the free-to-fee switch envisioned by media outlets could cause a drop in quantity because the substitution e↵ect would be triggered.”
Although there is likely to be some truth in this, there are counter argu-
ments to the ’original sin’-theory. Bradshaw [26] points out that publishers did
attempt to charge for their content in the early days, but how the readership
weren’t inclined to pay. Another objection he presents is the notion that the
legacy newspapers aren’t the only ones producing news anymore, thus the digital
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
news market stripped them of their privileged pre-internet distribution channels.
Further, they now have to compete with online-only actors while carrying the weight of print operations and costs while also lowering their rates.
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
As a result of the decreasing circulation of print and the inability of the ad-based model to be the single supporting revenue stream, solving the challenge of find- ing new sustainable business models has been imperative for legacy newspapers.
By 2013, Digital Content Next (formerly known as the Online Publishers As- sociation), counting titles such as The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Guardian, reported that 95% of their newspaper and magazine mem- bers were having a paid subscription strategy [35]. In realizing such strategies, publishers all over the world have been setting up digital constraints, commonly known as paywalls, requesting a payment before providing access to their content.
The format of those paywalls generally fall into two categories—the hard and the soft paywall—but new creative models are starting to emerge as publishers are looking to improve their conversion-rates.
2.3.1 Hard paywall
The hard model requires users to have a paid subscription before accessing any
content, as seen in figure 2.5. It has been found to work best for brands having a
strong connection to their readership and who delivers content focused on their
key readers’ needs [36]. British daily The Times is currently using this model and
it has been key in the digital success of The Wall Street Journal, who successfully
implemented it from 1996 until 2017.
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
Figure 2.5: The hard paywall as implemented by The Times.
Source: thetimes.co.uk ([37])
The downside of this model is that new and unsubscribed readers only get a glimpse of the content before having to choose between paying for a subscription or not. As a result, traffic is significantly reduced; Slovakian company Piano implements paywall solutions globally and found it to decrease by 85%-95% in the initial months, thus significantly a↵ecting digital advertising revenue [38].
2.3.2 Soft paywall
The soft paywall allows readers to access free content within certain boundaries.
The benefit of this model is that readers can spend more time in the service,
generating more traffic leading to increased digital advertising revenue. This
model adds variables to be tweaked by publishers as to the amount and kind of
content that is free to access, also known as paywall porosity. Two of the more
popular soft paywall models are the metered model and the freemium model, also
known as the noble model.
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
2.3.2.1 Metered
The metered model works by allowing readers free access to a fixed number of articles that resets at an arbitrary interval, as seen in figure 2.6. The New York Times was one of the first actors managing to profit with such a model, garnering 224,000 new digital subscribers over the first three months of putting it up [39]. It is the most e↵ective for brands providing large volumes of content and for brands with strong identities and a focused purpose [40].
Figure 2.6: The NY Times modal informing the user of how many articles they have left on their free access meter this month.
Source: nytimes.com ([41])
The major short-coming of the metered model is the fact that it is quite eas- ily abused, as tracking unregistered users across di↵erent devices is impossible, allowing for unlimited access. There is also a small loss in traffic, Piano reporting a 5%-15% reduction in the initial months [38]. Furthermore, the reported conver- sion rates are lower and conversion times are longer compared to other paywall models [40].
2.3.2.2 Freemium
The model that has grown to be the most popular amongst publishers is the
freemium model, allowing users to access some free content while putting more
valuable content, perceived to convert readers to subscribers, behind the wall (see
figure 2.7). It has been proven e↵ective for brands providing unique content and
where predictive data techniques are used to decide which content goes behind
the wall [40].
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
Figure 2.7: The freemium model as implemented by The Telegraph, where locked content is denoted with a ”PREMIUM”-tag.
Source: telegraph.co.uk ([42])
The freemium model is the most e↵ective in terms of conversion rate [40], however, as it is also locking a considerable amount of content behind the paywall, it has been found by Piano to inhibit traffic by about a third [38].
2.3.3 Augmented paywall
Novel takes on the hard and soft paywalls are emerging where publishers add and combine di↵erent features in pursuit of higher conversion rates and reduced churn.
2.3.3.1 Hybrid
The hybrid model, a combination of a freemium and metered paywall, has shown
success in Scandinavian countries where Reuters Institute reports a high percent-
age of direct access. In the Swedish respondents. the proportion who used direct
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
access in the last week was at 52%, while 26% reported they paid for online news in the last year (an increase of 6% from the previous year) to be compared with 14% over all markets, only superseded by Norway at 30% [7]. Due to the nature of this model, it entails little to no free content.
2.3.3.2 Dynamic
As technology is progressing in the area of artificial intelligence and machine learning, publishers are starting to apply predictive data techniques to devise dynamic paywalls; a model providing personalized copy, content and pricing tai- lored to each user based on certain predictor variables. The Wall Street Journal switched from a hard to a data-driven, dynamic paywall in 2017 and their owner, Dow Jones, are now boasting 3 million subscribers [43]. By observing 60 variables such as frequency of access and length of visits, preferred content and favorite device, their model estimates the individual reader’s willingness to pay and prox- imity to conversion, thus requesting subscription when the probability of them paying is high [40]. In Sweden, national daily Dagens Nyheter implements a dynamic paywall, and MittMedia recently started applying similar techniques to their 28 local newspapers, reporting mixed-results as of yet [44].
2.3.3.3 Sponsored
The sponsored model is driven by the donations of third-parties to provide for
the subscription cost for strategically important readership. Previous research
has found a link between news literacy and donating for this purpose, where high
news literacy correlates with finding high value in news [7]. The perhaps most
notable employer of this model is The Guardian, who earlier this spring broke
even with their donation-first model while o↵ering an ad-free version by paid
subscription [45].
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
2.3.3.4 Unique takes on paywalls
A creative time-locked paywall is currently utilized by Swedish MittMedia in their local news sites, where premium content is unlocked for the first hour before turning locked. Another unique angle is tested by The Telegraph and magazine Time Inc., where users gain access to their newsletters and an increased number of articles on their premium meter as they register a free account.
Figure 2.8: Information collected by newspapers from new digital subscribers.
Source: Associated Press ([46])
This opens up the ability to better personalize o↵erings and content to individ-
ual readers, increasing their incentives to subscribe. However, in 77 newspapers
looked at by the Associated Press, they found how only the most basic infor-
mation is being collected upon registration as described by figure 4.16, in e↵ect
subverting this opportunity [46].
2.3 The Rise of Paywalls
2.3.4 Willingness to pay
A growing research interest has been placed in exploring how well these paywall solutions are working, i.e. the willingness to pay for online news. A survey by telephone in the US (N=570) found how online users are more willing to pay for entertainment such as online video and music, or solutions, as in software and apps, than for knowledge as in news [34]. At the same time, already paying for digital products like video and eBooks had a positive impact on the willingness to pay for online news, while paying for games and music did not. Further, high- income takers reported a higher willingness to pay, as has been found for higher education [36]. In terms of age, the study reported a reverse correlation with paying intent, where the younger respondents were more likely to pay for news online. However, the opposite has been found for local news [31].
When looking at the reasons behind paying for online news, a study of just above 4100 online news subscribers in the US found how 60% wanted access to local news, 40% noticed a lot of interesting and useful articles, and 31% did it to support local journalism. In 45% of the cases, a promotion or free trial was the final trigger for signing up for a subscription [36]. In Sweden, local newspaper owner Gota Media inquired some of their recent young subscribers why they decided to pay for their news, and a common response was how they did it as a social statement of supporting local journalism [47].
It is evident that content plays a central part in the willingness to pay for on-
line news, and certain news genres have been found to have a bigger influence on
driving subscriptions. The International News Media Association (INMA) found
how in 35 local news publications, investigative journalism triggered the most
subscriptions, followed by crime, accidents, health care and opinion [40]. A study
of college students found how they valued their experience of online news on ac-
cessibility, shareability, consistency, fun, importance, personification and diverse
2.4 Design Theory
content [48]. Turning to the experts, in-depth interviews with professionals from the fields of communications, digital marketing, and news companies found how the efficiency of payment models for online news was believed to heavily rely on the added value of the news content. Further, this was thought to depend on four quality variables, much like those found in the college students: specialization, di↵erentiation, exclusivity, and accessibility [49].
2.4 Design Theory
In exploring this landscape, this thesis turns to the field of design. Design tends to happen in cross-cultural teams, spanning over several areas of expertise. Be- ing able to efficiently empathize with users and collaborators across di↵erent knowledge domains to identify conflicts and opportunities is therefore key in ac- complishing good design. Applying a theoretical framework to the process of design allows just this. Through comparison, abstraction, and generalization of concepts, designers and collaborators are able to ‘speak the same language’—to share a vocabulary [50].
2.4.1 Design thinking
An ideology within which design theory may be applied that has grown increas-
ingly popular over the last couple of years is design thinking. Although its core
concept is all but new, coined by David Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO in the
1980s, design thinking strives to ”create design artifacts that address real and not
imaginary user needs, and then tests those artifacts with real users” [8]. It has
been found beneficial in areas such as business, management, industrial design
as well as service and experience design [51]. Nielsen and Norman’s NNGroup
denotes it as being defined by a six-step process:
2.4 Design Theory
”The design thinking ideology asserts that a hands-on, user-centric approach to problem-solving can lead to innovation, and innovation can lead to di↵erentiation and a competitive advantage. This hands- on, user-centric approach is defined by the design thinking process and comprises 6 distinct phases.” [8]
Empathize
As design thinking embody a ”people first” approach [51], the first step is to connect with the users. Early research into what they do, say, think, and feel is therefore paramount in understanding their perspective.
Define
The next step is to identify where the users’ problems exist. By analyzing the results from the previous phase, the idea here is to find what user needs are unmet by the current design.
Ideate
Drawing upon the needs subsumed by the defined challenge, ideas to solve those needs are generated. The focus here is quantity over quality, exploring and com- bining di↵erent creative ideas.
Prototype
By connecting the bank of ideas with the identified needs, the feasible, viable and desirable ideas are crystallized into tactile representations or prototypes.
Test
The prototypes are then tested with real users. In what sense is the proposed
solution alleviating the frictions experienced by the users?
2.4 Design Theory
Implement
The final step entails putting the solution into e↵ect. If the process of design thinking isn’t transformed into design doing it is unable to meet the needs and challenges of the users.
Figure 2.9: The design thinking process.
Source: NNGroup ([8])
These six steps should be transversed iteratively and cyclically, as described in figure 2.9, making use of insights between phases [8]. Further, they are meant to be used with a dynamic approach, shaping and utilizing them to fit the challenge at hand. Therefore, due to the time constraint of this work, the design process is applied while overlooking the sixth phase - implement.
2.4.2 Activity Theory
In this work, the first phases of the design thinking process is complemented by
the use of activity theory as a theoretical framework and methodological tool for
analyzing research data. Activity theory is a post-cognitivist theory founded by
Sovjet developmental psychologist Alexei Leontiev who built upon the cultural-
historical psychological foundation formed by a previous teacher of his, Sovjet
2.4 Design Theory
psychologist Lev Vygotsky. The heart of the theory is the position that humans and artifacts exist in a rich, social matrix wherein activities take place [50]. The notion of an activity is slightly narrowed down to evade that any mindless e↵ect upon the environment to fulfill its definition. Instead, an activity is characterized as a hierarchical, directed e↵ort towards the motive of fulfilling needs—either regarding some biological requirement or to conduct some subjective arbitrary change to the environment.
Figure 2.10: The Engestr¨om activity system model.
Contrary to the traditional perspective within HCI of users and information
technology as two mutually exclusive poles that should be studied as such, activity
theory recognizes the activity itself as the basic unit of analysis. It is thus taking
the stance that activities need to be approached as “greater than the sum of its
parts”-fashion, i. e. as the, often mediated, interaction between a subject and
object [50]. A representation of this can be found in Engestr¨om’s activity system
model as seen in figure 2.10. It describes components of activities with arrows
as the interacting possibilities between them; subject, object, tools, community,
rules, division of labor, and outcome. Just as the carpenter uses the hammer to
hit a nail to hold a house together that gives people shelter, activity theory posits
that people undertake activities, such as consuming news, to fulfill meaningful
2.4 Design Theory
needs. The identification of such needs is the point of departure for this thesis and where activity theory is applied.
2.4.2.1 The activity checklist
To facilitate the use of activity theory in HCI design practice, Kaptelinin de- veloped The activity Checklist [50]. The general aim of the activity checklist is to represent the space of context of activities [52] and it has since its conception been found a useful tool in doing just so among rural users in Uganda for example [53]. It is a two-sided tool consisting of one version to be used during the design phases and another version to be used during evaluation phases. Each checklist consists of four perspectives, each containing a set of questions to map out the most important contextual factors of human-computer interaction [50]:
Means and ends Who uses the technology, how and to what ends? This perspective focuses on the technology’s ability to aid or obstruct the user in succeeding towards a meaningful goal.
Environment How and when does the technology become useful to the user?
These questions help to map how the technology integrates with the environment such as social rules, requirements, tools or resources.
Learning How big is the e↵ort needed to learn how to use the technology? This perspective focuses on the internalization and externalization processes.
Development How does technology a↵ect the actions done? These questions envelops the aforementioned perspectives under the concept of development.
One of the strengths of the checklist is its ability to provide an early overview of
2.4 Design Theory
potential contextual contradictions, therefore it is considered to be a fitting tool
for the first part of the thesis; in finding a more specific design challenge and a
more narrow scope. Similar to the application of design thinking, the checklist is
proposed to be used ”quick and dirty” in an ad hoc-fashion, utilizing pieces of it
most likely to yield results for the specific use case [50].
Chapter 3
Part 1: Identifying the challenges
The previous chapter described a transformed state of journalism where the golden days of print is replaced with a high tempo, multi-faceted landscape driven by new technology and changing audience behavior. In this digital news potpourri of ambient exposure, news avoidance, and new business models, the perspective of the consumers with regards to their experience in interacting with these con- texts has been somewhat overlooked in research. This chapter, therefore, takes a step back and explores some of the challenges and opportunities from the users’
perspective by applying qualitative research methodology as seen through the lens of activity theory. The start and outcome of this chapter correlates to the first and second steps of the design thinking process in figure 3.1 respectively.
3.1 Method
According to the design thinking process, as described by NNGroup, the impor-
tant first step is to ”develop knowledge about what your users do, say, think, and
feel” [8]. Therefore, to find out what online news interactions do, and doesn’t
do, for a group of consumers and their needs, young adults were interviewed
3.1 Method
Figure 3.1: The ”empathize” and ”define”-phase of the design thinking process covered in this chapter.
about their perceptions and habits concerning online news. Further, to take the perspective of the other side into account—that of the news companies—expert interviews were carried out with representatives of a regional newspaper as well as a niche magazine. The format on these interviews were semi-structured, starting with open questions and exploring themes that arose concerning any subtopics, as it has been found useful to capture data about audience practices and percep- tions [54]. The approach of finding subjects, formulation of questions, etc. was inspired by the book Talking To Humans by Constable et al. [55].
3.1.1 Interview: Young adults
To function as a litmus-test to compare a specific demography with previous re-
search and reports, young Swedish adults (N=10) were interviewed over the du-
ration of 20–40 minutes to provide insights into their general thoughts and habits
regarding news consumption. The participants were 6 females and 4 males, with
ages ranging from 22–31. The majority, 8 out of 10, were currently working on
their first university degree, 1 was taking extra courses after their first degree and
1 was working on a doctoral degree. Their areas of study ranged from engineering
to psychology to social sciences.
3.1 Method
The interviews started by the subjects explaining how they were exposed to news in the sense of ”public information of recent events”. As the interviews progressed, subtopics such as what mediums they used, how frequently, their degree of participation and their willingness to pay were either covered organically by the storytelling of the subjects or nudged towards by the interviewer to cover approximately the same ground across the entire sample.
3.1.2 Interview: Regional news company
To gain insights about the organizational and business perspective of the topics discussed in this work, the online news editor-in-chief and a UX-designer at the media department of the leading regional news company, V¨asterbottens-Kuriren (VK Media), of V¨asterbotten county, Sweden, were interviewed. VK has had an online presence since the 1990s and implements a hybrid (metered and freemium) paywall model today. The interview lasted for one hour, where challenges identi- fied during the research and user interviews were discussed concerning their own experiences and insights.
3.1.3 Interview: Telecom Magazine
To broaden the perspective of the work, and to investigate if more niche media companies and markets are dealing with similar challenges as the general news industry, the editor-in-chief of a telecom magazine was interviewed. Telekom Idag is a Sweden-based business-to-business magazine producing news, analysis and trend reports of the telecommunications market. They publish a physical magazine six times a year as well as provide content on their website behind a soft (freemium) paywall model. Last year they reported having 6500 unique weekly visitors
1. The interview took place over the phone due to geographical
1https://telekomidag.se/om/
