New York and Rochester, N.Y. – The largest newspaper publisher soon will charge customers for accessing community papers online.
Gannett made the announcement at an investors meeting Wednesday. USA Today will be the only paper that will remain free online.
The change is expected to happen by the end of the year.
Democrat and Chronicle reader Maxine Ferlicca said, "Other papers are free--I'm not going to pay for it!”
“There have been some disasters in this area,” RIT media expert Mike Johansson said. “When Newsday tried to do it, it cost them millions and millions of dollars. So few people signed up, they gave up.”
The Democrat and Chronicle does not have an exact date for the switch. Each individual community Gannett paper will decide how many articles can be seen by customers for free, before payment is required.
Other newspapers like The New York Times already charge for online access to articles.
The Democrat and Chronicle says daily readership has been strong for years and remained flat compared to other newspapers that have seen readership drop significantly.
Director of Marketing Dennis Floss says weekly readership, using newspaper and online averages, was 79.9 percent in 2009 and fell to 79.3 percent in 2011. Floss said the national average is around 54 percent.
The D&C sold 122,806 daily newspapers in 2009. That number fell to 118,464 in 2011.
