May 5, 2022, 11am-12pm
Thomas Hess, Professor of Information Systems & Management; Director, Institute for Digital Management and New Media, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
"Digital Paywalls"
Hess has observed that digitalization has exacerbated the monetization of news content, such that changing consumption behavior of readers and insufficient digital advertising revenues have pushed news publishers to increase direct revenue generation in the digital environment. News publishers commonly implement digital paywalls based on freemium models, restricting free content offerings in terms of either choice (premium paywall) or quantity (metered paywall). Although research on information systems, marketing, and media management has intensively investigated the consequences of digital paywalls on news websites, the content monetization dilemma still does not seem to be solved.
This talk therefore provided an overview of three central digital paywall research streams: (1) offering free content, paid content, or both; (2) consequences of introducing a digital paywall; and (3) the impact of the digital paywall configuration on user behavior. The talk concludes with questions that needs to be addressed in future research.