It’s been a while since we’ve discussed newspaper paywalls, but this most recent move by The New York Times, Gannett Group and the Washington Post, under the name of Ongo, forces us to bring up the topic again.

As we have said many times, we would not be in this paywall mess if Rupert Murdoch did not bring it up.  But funnily enough, the originator the lack luster plan, did not continue with his own roll out of paywalls for his properties – so what does that tell you… it probably will not work, especially if all you serve to users is general news content that can be found elsewhere.  Nonetheless, the three publishing groups above, have launched a service called Ongo, where users subscribe to receive news content from not only the the three founding publishers, but also the Associated press, the Guardian and the Financial Times.  Subscribers pay $6.99 and they are served the news content that Ongo editors deem top content.  Now while there is some customization allowed, the service, as best as we can understand, does not encourage a $6.99 spend on the behalf of users.

The concept is simple – if you are looking to erect content paywalls ensure your content is niche, specific and fills a content void.