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CNN
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CNN, one of the most popular news websites in the world, is starting to ask some visitors to pay $3.99 per month for access.

On Tuesday, the news organization will lay the first stones in a so-called paywall that should eventually help pay the bill for CNN’s journalism around the world.

“Starting today, we’re asking users in the United States to pay a small recurring fee for unlimited access to CNN.com’s world-class articles,” Alex MacCallum, CNN’s executive vice president of digital products and services, wrote in a statement. internal memo detailing the plan.

The average visitor to CNN’s website, who may only read a few articles per month, will not be asked to pay at this time. “Only after users have read a certain number of free articles are they asked to subscribe,” MacCallum explains. “In addition to unlimited access to CNN.com’s articles, subscribers will receive benefits including exclusive election articles, original documentaries, a curated daily selection of our most distinctive journalism and reduced digital advertising.”

MacCallum and her boss Mark Thompson, the chairman and CEO of CNN, are both veterans of The New York Times, which is widely envied in the news business for its success in converting online readers and gamers into paying subscribers.

In a memo over the summer, Thompson said CNN would “create best-in-class, subscription-ready products that will deliver necessary news, analysis and context in compelling new formats and experiences, starting with CNN.com’s first subscription. product launch before the end of 2024.”

That paid offer will be launched on Tuesday – in a preliminary form that will be expanded in the coming months. “Over time, we will invest in ways to better meet the needs of our users and expand our ability to reach and serve new audiences,” MacCallum wrote on Tuesday, referring to “new products and companies” in the future.

For brands like CNN, which make most of their money from cable TV, the challenge is clear: develop new digital revenue streams that can offset declines in traditional television.

Under former management, CNN developed a streaming video product called CNN+ in 2022 to create direct-to-consumer relationships with the network’s fans. That product, released just days before a new parent company, Warner Bros. However, Discovery, was launched, took control and sought cost savings, was doomed. CNN+ was canceled within weeks.

CNN now plans to drive subscriptions with its core offering. However, some content remains fully accessible without a subscription, including CNN’s homepage; live stories about breaking news; standalone video pages; and sponsored articles.

Thomson Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news provider, announced Tuesday that it will also launch a paywall for its website and app in early October. The news outlet shared that subscriptions will be available worldwide for a weekly fee of $1.

“This new subscription plan allows Reuters to expand the reach of its award-winning reporting at an affordable price, while allowing us to further invest in our reporting and subscriber products,” Reuters President Paul Bascobert said in a statement.

Digital subscriptions have proven to be a promising but challenging business for other news organizations. A recent survey from the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that only about one in five American consumers currently pay for online news.

Greg Piechota, researcher-in-residence at the International News Media Association, said there is plenty of room for the industry to grow. “There is no subscription ceiling for online news,” Piechota said. “Imagine standing in front of the One World Trade skyscraper in downtown New York and looking up at the top observation deck. Most news brands have only reached the first floor, and the 100th floor is far away in the clouds.”

The Times is by far the highest, he said, with about 10 million digital subscribers.

Smaller news organizations have faced subscription fatigue and other sources of resistance — a reflection of the fact that virtually all reporting was published for free when the World Wide Web became popular in the 1990s.

Media companies large and small have spent the past decade trying to change the norms around access to news.

Yet many readers and viewers fail to make the connection between personally paying for news and helping to sustain the industry as a whole. Piechota said: “Unfortunately, based on surveys, most consumers around the world are unaware of the financial challenges facing the commercial news media.”

“But when they hear about the critical financial situation in the sector,” he said, “their willingness to pay for journalism is at its highest, surveys show.”

CNN’s Liam Reilly contributed reporting.