4 ms·

Slovak media goes behind paywall

24 points by Aqwis 15y ago

Aqwis 15y ago
This is essentially the NYT paywall but on a grander scale. While whatever happens in Slovakia is not likely to have a direct effect on the rest of the world, it'll be an interesting test of the paywall model for online news.
dr_win 15y ago
30% for doing a middleman sounds to me quite a lot.
derrida 15y ago
I can't wait until all of the old media go behind a paywall: imagine what grand ambitious projects will fill the void!
simonw 15y ago
Key part of that article: "Slovakia has a population of only 5.7m, it is also the only country in which the Slovak language is universally spoken. This language isolation makes it easier for the market to be harnessed in this way"
- muuh-gnu 15y ago
  That is the point of small languages, to be able to easily cut off the people speaking those languages from the rest of the world by deyning them information. Instead of investing money for access to these newspapers, the slovaks should invest time and better learn a bigger, globally used language, to reroute the paywall and to get more independent of local news suppliers.
  - thingie 15y ago
    Almost any Slovak can easily understand Czech and read pretty much anything written in the neighbouring Czech republic (where paid internet media are quite unlikely in the near future), but I guess that they are interested in what is going on in their country, general worldwide and Czech news won't do.
    - rwmj 15y ago
      Good opportunity for a Czech website to set up a Slovak news subsite? It need not cost too much just to filter Slovak news to one site.
      - vetinari 15y ago
        Could be an opportunity for Czechs. However, it is not necessary. Not all news sites are putting up the paywall and even those that are, they are not doing it for wire news (SME and Pravda are doing it for opinion pages, occasional "premium articles" and discussion boards). SME tried it in the past and it was a failure, that did them more damage than improvements; this time they tried to cooperate among publishers and do it at the same time, but they still do not have critical mass. Most people that didn't drink the cool-aid expect it to fail again.
      - thingie 15y ago
        Not really, because almost all (if not all) large Czech news websites and press are owned by German media companies, and almost the same is true for Slovakia, so it's unlikely they would be interested in such competition.
  - benologist 15y ago
    That argument can be applied to anything anyone pays for ... if they want to start charging for milk you should just get your own cow and learn how to milk it yourself! If Slovakians are willing to pay for news then they'll pay otherwise they won't, just like every other commodity.
cemi 15y ago
I live in Slovakia and I find this article misleading. Behind paywall are only some articles (e.g. not the daily news), comments and some smaller specialized site sections. Visitor can still read online daily news for free there.
- forcer 15y ago
  Also, what is weird that BBC article quotes the main guy behind the project as a great success, but when you look at the actual newspaper websites, you could struggle to find any information about paywall. e.g. on sme.sk e.g. "After two days we have reached our goals for the whole month," he said. What goal was it? I am really struggling to hit the paywall. I had to go to their project website - http://www.pianomedia.sk/payment/index.php?xSwitchLang=en http://www.pianomedia.sk/payment/index.php?xSwitchLang=en to get any information about the paywal.
  - vetinari 15y ago
    Try some article with grey key or teraz.sme.sk

24 points by Aqwis 15y ago

Aqwis 15y ago

This is essentially the NYT paywall but on a grander scale. While whatever happens in Slovakia is not likely to have a direct effect on the rest of the world, it'll be an interesting test of the paywall model for online news.

dr_win 15y ago

30% for doing a middleman sounds to me quite a lot.

derrida 15y ago

I can't wait until all of the old media go behind a paywall: imagine what grand ambitious projects will fill the void!

simonw 15y ago

Key part of that article: "Slovakia has a population of only 5.7m, it is also the only country in which the Slovak language is universally spoken. This language isolation makes it easier for the market to be harnessed in this way"

muuh-gnu 15y ago
That is the point of small languages, to be able to easily cut off the people speaking those languages from the rest of the world by deyning them information. Instead of investing money for access to these newspapers, the slovaks should invest time and better learn a bigger, globally used language, to reroute the paywall and to get more independent of local news suppliers.
- thingie 15y ago
  Almost any Slovak can easily understand Czech and read pretty much anything written in the neighbouring Czech republic (where paid internet media are quite unlikely in the near future), but I guess that they are interested in what is going on in their country, general worldwide and Czech news won't do.
  - rwmj 15y ago
    Good opportunity for a Czech website to set up a Slovak news subsite? It need not cost too much just to filter Slovak news to one site.
    - vetinari 15y ago
      Could be an opportunity for Czechs. However, it is not necessary. Not all news sites are putting up the paywall and even those that are, they are not doing it for wire news (SME and Pravda are doing it for opinion pages, occasional "premium articles" and discussion boards). SME tried it in the past and it was a failure, that did them more damage than improvements; this time they tried to cooperate among publishers and do it at the same time, but they still do not have critical mass. Most people that didn't drink the cool-aid expect it to fail again.
    - thingie 15y ago
      Not really, because almost all (if not all) large Czech news websites and press are owned by German media companies, and almost the same is true for Slovakia, so it's unlikely they would be interested in such competition.
- benologist 15y ago
  That argument can be applied to anything anyone pays for ... if they want to start charging for milk you should just get your own cow and learn how to milk it yourself! If Slovakians are willing to pay for news then they'll pay otherwise they won't, just like every other commodity.

cemi 15y ago

I live in Slovakia and I find this article misleading. Behind paywall are only some articles (e.g. not the daily news), comments and some smaller specialized site sections. Visitor can still read online daily news for free there.

forcer 15y ago
Also, what is weird that BBC article quotes the main guy behind the project as a great success, but when you look at the actual newspaper websites, you could struggle to find any information about paywall. e.g. on sme.sk e.g. "After two days we have reached our goals for the whole month," he said. What goal was it? I am really struggling to hit the paywall. I had to go to their project website - http://www.pianomedia.sk/payment/index.php?xSwitchLang=en http://www.pianomedia.sk/payment/index.php?xSwitchLang=en to get any information about the paywal.
- vetinari 15y ago
  Try some article with grey key or teraz.sme.sk