Omaha.com paywall coming soon

If you’ve had keen eyes these past few months, you may have noticed more and more little blue dots with an “O” appearing on the Omaha World-Herald’s website …

If you’ve had keen eyes these past few months, you may have noticed more and more little blue dots with an “O” appearing on the Omaha World-Herald‘s website, Omaha.com. Soon, those blue dots, which currently indicate “Premium Content,” will signify that the associated article is behind a paywall. (Left, screenshot from Omaha.com.)

For example, here’s a screenshot from the front page of Omaha.com today. The second and fifth stories under “Top Stories” are labeled with the blue dots and will fall under the eventual paywall.

Screenshot from omaha.com

Though the paywall isn’t currently in effect, World-Herald publisher Terry Kroger in an article today said: “This week, we are taking an important step toward digital subscriptions for our content.” Kroger said that “most information on Omaha.com will remain free for all viewers.” But to access anything labeled Premium Content, a digital subscription will be required.

“The World-Herald, like daily newspapers across America, has always received a portion of its revenues from subscriptions and single-copy sales,” Kroger said. “For more than 125 years, that revenue has supported our ability to gather, report and explain news that cannot be found elsewhere. Digital subscriptions are a logical and overdue extension of that tradition.”

When implemented later this week, here’s how the digital subscriptions will break down:

  • Current seven-day print subscribers will have the option to pre-pay at least six months in advance ($106.62) to earn an “All-Access” pass, which includes Premium Content and a number of other perks, such as discounts on classifieds and reprints
  • Current seven-day print subscribers who choose to not pre-pay six months in advance will have the option to pay an extra $1.95 on top of their $17.77 per month subscription for “unlimited access to all Omaha.com content”
  • Current non-subscribers and subscribers of any level below the top seven-day subscription will have the option to pay $9.95 per month for “unlimited access on Omaha.com”

We haven’t yet spoken with the World-Herald about this decision but plan to reach out to them in the coming weeks. If you have a specific question you’d like us to ask, such as what this might mean for DataOmaha.com (a site of the World-Herald’s we’ve recently covered), please leave it in a comment below.

Also, it’s important to note that since May 2010 we’ve had a content syndication partnership with the World-Herald. At this point, it’s our understanding that our syndicated content on Omaha.com, which can be found on right side the Money page, will remain free to all readers.

To read more about the forthcoming paywall, head over to Omaha.com to read the announcement by Kroger: “Subscribe for Premium Content.”

Update 10:20 p.m. – To implement the paywall, it appears the World-Herald is using Press+. Here’s the pop-up window I recieved after visiting my third Premium Content article of the day:

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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