Pay walls go up and down

Just as more publishers hoist up pay walls in an attempt to bolster revenue, others are tearing them down. The Chicago Tribune is just the latest to announce that it plans to start charging for online content. Under its new strategy, the newspaper will include articles from the Economist and Forbes, in addition to premium Tribune content, in a paid section. paidContent’s Jeff John Roberts believes the Tribune’s decision to include content from the Economist and Forbes is the most intriguing part of the deal. “It means the paper will have to earn more digital revenue simply to pay for the outside content,” he wrote. “But the approach stands to pay off by offering Tribune readers a richer world of reading behind the paywall without having to put too much of its content out of sight.” The move follows on the heels of Fairfax Media’s decision to charge for content on the websites of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The Australian news publisher also plans to merge the newsrooms of those two papers and cut 1,900 jobs. Under the new strategy, the company says it’s giving itself flexibility to “transition to a digital-only model” if advertising and print revenue continue to drop.

But not everyone is riding the trend of pay walls. The New York Post, for one, is backtracking on its iPad pay wall plan. Just one year after implementing the plan, which asked readers to pay $6.99 a month for a subscription, the publisher is opening the app back up for free. Why the shift in strategy? Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici said the answer likely has something to do with the increasing importance of the iPad and other tablets as a source of traffic. “Next year, tablets will surpass smartphones as a source of mobile web traffic, and they’ll make up 10% of all web traffic by 2014,” he explained. “And between tablets, the competition’s not even close, with the iPad accounting for more than 90% of all traffic.”

• Chicago Tribune to launch redesigned website that will be free for now but sets stage for a pay wall (Chicago Tribune)

• Chicago Tribune gives readers Economist, Forbes under new paywall plan (paidContent)

• ‘Chicago Tribune’ Puts Up Paywall With ‘Forbes,’ ‘Economist’ Content (MediaPost)

• Fairfax to shed 1900 staff, erect paywalls (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Australia’s Fairfax to slash newspaper jobs as media landscape shifts (Reuters)

• Down-sizing Down Under, Fairfax Media cuts and charges to survive (paidContent)

• New York Post Pivots On iPad Strategy, Dropping Paywall (Forbes)

• New York Post Quietly Rolls Up iPad Paywall (PC Magazine)

• NY Post Quietly Removes Safari Block on Paid iPad App (NYConvergence)