John Fry, head of Johnston Press, has ruled out future paywalls for JP’s newspaper websites, following the unsuccessful trial on selected sites late last year.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Fry says:
While a respectable number of users were prepared to pay, it wasn’t enough to offset the slump in ad revenues.
As Fry says: “With the internet it’s free and has been from the beginning. After 15 years of free it’s hard to change people’s habits.”
Apps and media mergers are more likely to help the regional press, he says.