Montreal Gazette and Victoria Times Colonist experiment with online news paywalls

Asking people to suddenly start paying for something they have become accustomed to getting for free over the last decade or so doesn't sound like much of a bargain.

One of the most prominent newspaper publishers in Canada, Postmedia Network, is testing what its websites might be worth to habitual visitors.

The company, publisher of the National Post, implemented a 'metering' system on Wednesday for the Montreal Gazette and Victoria Times Colonist. The inspiration was a similar paywall introduced by The New York Times in March that allows for some complimentary access.

The emergent industry standard, evidently, is to offer browsers 20 free articles per month. Readers of the Postmedia sites will be asked to pay if they want to dive in deeper each day.

Victoria seems to have been chosen as a test market based on its older population, which is most accustomed to subscribing to a newspaper, and therefore less likely to balk at a $9.95 monthly charge.

The media environment in Montreal is more competitive, but the Gazette has been the sole English-language daily for decades, even if its readership has also aged. Web access will remain free for print subscribers while an annual online membership will cost $69.95.

Comments about the sudden move were inevitably critical. Often mentioned was the fact the local journalism produced by Postmedia is not on par with the wider scope of those U.S. or U.K. outlets that have instituted a paywall with varying degrees of success.

The decision seems to target a specific kind of subscriber, who would rather pay for instant access to the information they want, rather than worry about potential workarounds.

But the move also clashes with what chief executive Paul Godfrey said in a speech last fall, after which the company's own Financial Post reported his belief paywalls weren't a cure-all for the industry, even though he didn't rule them.

The national chain, acquired last summer after owner Canwest filed for bankruptcy, was mostly banded together a century ago by publisher William Southam.

Conrad Black's company Hollinger acquired the publications in 1996, sold them to Canwest in 2000, and they are now part of a collective bet by bankers that there's still money to be made from professional media outlets in all of Canada's major cities.

(CP Photo)