This week’s Twipe Weekly Publishing News Digest takes a look at stories from across the world of publishing, touching on topics like a US local publisher dropping their paywall, price increases for Washington Post subscribers, Web3’s potential and more. Read our top 5 stories of the week below.
1. The Chicago Sun-Times have made their digital content free for everyone
Last week, The Chicago Sun-Times announced that they were dropping the paywall on their digital content. The move see’s the local publisher adopt a donation-based model encouraging memberships over subscriptions and the adoption of a registration wall to access content. A nice touch has seen the publisher ask readers to submit a letter to The Chicago Sun-Times‘ editor to either tell a story about their community or correct the record.
Read more on the move here.
2. Gen Z is the world’s most digital audience, spending two-thirds of media time online :WARC report
Perhaps the news doesn’t come as a surprise but WARC‘s latest report confirms that Gen Z are the world’s most digital audience. A whopping 67.7% of their media time is spent on digital channels, but surprisingly their attention time on social platforms has dropped. Their increases in online media consumption have been “driven by the creation of new media opportunities – such as music and podcast streaming – rather than digital innovations fully supplanting offline channels“.
You can read WNIP‘s full summary and also the full report here.
3. The Washington Post is reducing its discount for Amazon Prime members
Amazon Prime members look away – your days of discounted Washington Post subscriptions are over. Nieman Lab‘s Laura Hazard Owen last week reported that subscribers on the special $3.99 monthly rate through Amazon Prime will see a price increase to $7.99 per month (after an initial communication error of $12!). Apparently the price increase comes as the Post‘s digital businesses have begun to stall.
Check out the full story on Nieman Lab.
4. Web3 offers readers a prescription for subscription
For the latest article in our Exclusive Speaker Series ahead of the Digital Growth Summit (get your tickets here – deadline for in-person registrations is this Wednesday!), Jack Davies, Senior Researcher in the R&D team at nChain discussed the future potential of Web3 for publishing and how the development of tech could finally lead to a world of publishing micropayments.
Find Jack’s full piece here.
5. Apple will be forced to use new charger after EU votes for USB-C
It’s official – Apple will be forced to adopt USB-C charging for all of their products in the EU by autumn 2024. Following a long drawn out saga, the final vote saw an overwhelming 602 MEPs vote for the plan last Tuesday in Strasbourg, with just 13 MEPs voting against and 8 abstaining.
You can read more from Bloomberg here.
