Will Projo.com start charging its readers?

The Providence Journal has made its articles available for free on Projo.com since the site debuted in October 1996. However, according to the Providence Business News, Projo.com readers will soon be required to pay for some of its stories. The Journal will soon begin selling an electronic edition that will be an exact digital replica of the newspaper.

With circulations declining, the changes for newspapers have been plentiful. The newspaper industry is undergoing a digital transformation and A.H. Belo, The Providence Journal’s parent company, is moving in this direction. The Dallas-based company recently announced it was exploring ways of charging for the content on its websites. John McKeon, president and general manager of The Dallas Morning News, A.H. Belo’s largest paper claims that “the introduction of The Journal’s e-edition will likely involve the limiting of some content on the general free website – specifically, unique content of value to people in Rhode Island.” Those articles “would only be available through a paid wall on an e-edition,” he said.

Not much as been stated on how much the digital edition would cost. A one-year subscription to The Journal’s print edition costs $416, compared with $806 for The Boston Globe or $770 for The New York Times.

The number of people using devices like Smartphones, Kindles, and iPads is continuing to increase. It’s because of these technologies that more and more readers are moving towards the digital editions of newspaper publications. They are easily accessible and readily available. Does this mean that readers will be willing to start paying for their news? Probably so. Readers see news as worth paying for. How do you read the news? Do you still pick up a paper on your way to the office? Or do you pick up your iPhone?