Evaluation of Paywall’s Usage as Profitable Tool for Online Newspapers in Nigeria

Abstract

Journalism practice in this digital age has been bedevilled with several challenges that have threatened its survival. In order to stay afloat and maintain its status as the fourth estate of the realm, it has adopted technological innovation by diversifying and intertwining its print media platforms with a digital presence as a means of survival in a highly competitive and near-choking operational environment. One of such means is paywalling. Paywalls provide an opportunity for online news outlets to generate income without relying on digital advertising alone, in an era where advertising-blockers negatively affect advertising revenue. Hence, the onus of this study focuses on assessing whether digital newspapers in Nigeria have embraced this wind of change in income generation by using paywalls to monetize their websites and to examine the types of paywalls prevalent among them. The researchers hinged this study on creative destruction theory and adopted content analysis as the research design. Findings revealed that Nigerian online newspapers do not use paywalls for profitability they rather rely on digital advertising for sustainability. The researchers recommended that the Nigerian online newspaper should embrace the new technology just like its counterparts in other countries in order to have another avenue for profit making.