Media Matters: Provincial paywall play & awards argy-bargy
ODT to make punters pay and annual Axis outrage. With special audio feature.
The major media story this week is the Otago Daily Times introducing a metered paywall for its online news content, which will launch next month alongside a website redesign.
Allied Press commercial director Matthew Holdridge says the idea of a paywall was spurred on by advertising no longer being lucrative enough to sustain the business, and the realisation the company has been “giving away its content for free for long enough.”
The paywall will allow readers access to between five and 30 free articles per month before requiring them to subscribe at a cost of $27 a month – more than an NBR Online subscription.
As noted by NBR’s technology editor Chris Keall, the ODT might be missing a beat by putting all its content behind the paywall rather than making general news free and padlocking Otago-centric content.
ODT is missing a trick with its metered paywall. Should but Otago news under lock to drive subs, and make other news free to drive traffic
— Chris Keall (@ChrisKeall) March 14, 2016
Annual awards animus
Also on the bubble is what appears to be the annual outbreak of outrage about who won the latest Axis Awards, which is covered in more detail in this week's NBR print edition.
The complaints of yore commonly centred on agencies creating ads first, then looking for a client to get behind them, as well as scarcely run campaigns that appeared to ultimately owe their existence to the desire for a gong.
This year, a few highly creative ideas took out the top prizes (as usual) but they all promoted products that aren’t readily available to the public:
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Brewtroleum, a fuel made using beer waste that was available only for a day or two
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Reduce Speed Dial, which gave four families the opportunity to design personalised speed dials to discourage speeding, and
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overall winner Clever Kash, an electronic piggy bank enabling parents to teach their kids about money by syncing with the ASB mobile app.
The wins sparked fury on ad industry rag StopPress, where a few people called out the campaigns – especially Clever Kash, which was heavily promoted six months ago and is still not available to the public.
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Thu, 17 Mar 2016
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Media Matters: Provincial paywall play & awards argy-bargy
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