Slovakia became the first country to erect a paywall that encompasses almost all of its major media.
Since May 2, users were asked to pay a fixed fee of € the 2.90 (￡ 2.57) which entitles them to access all news sites nine under the regime.
The paywall is the fruit of Tomas Bella, former editor of the great leader of the country, SMEs.
He is currently CEO of the media in Piano, the consultancy based in Bratislava will orchestrate the operation.
Bella attempted to open a paywall in his time to SMEs, but the project failed.
His company will now control access to SMEs and the oldest daily Pravda of the country, a large business, a sports daily and a weekly news among others.
In total, nine of the Slovakia major news organizations took part in the payment of the premium content service.
Piano will be 30% on revenue service while new organizations will be allocated profits to how much time visitors spend on their site.
Struggle for survival
"We want to have the freedom of information, we want to have as many possible sources, but some media can survive longer with just advertising revenue," said Bella, as he outlined the motivations behind the project.
"Us would rather have more sources of information rather than less even if some of them are paid.".
As expected, the project comes under fire from some sections of the public who are not used to pay for online media.
Two Facebook groups have already been implemented in opposition to the paywall, and formed another group threatening to bring an action for infringement of the freedom of information Piano media laws.
The paywall model follows the cable TV, where a single service provider controls access to the various networks for a fixed fee.
Bella feels that the convenience of this system will be key to its success. And, for the most part, it seems that the paywall has been well received.
"After"we have reached our goals for the month, two days he said."".
Isolation of language
"We are prove that it is not true that people will not pay the content mainly in countries such as the Slovakia where people are not used to pay for things with credit Web cards".
The New York Times will start charging online readers next yearWhile the system seems to work in Slovakia, in the large countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States there is still a chimera for publishers.
"I would not brave enough to try this in the United Kingdom or the United States, but in small countries, that it should work", acknowledged the Bella.
Slovakia has a population of only 5.7 m, it is also the only country where the Slovak language is universally spoken. This isolation of language makes it easier for the market to operate in this way.
Bella is expected that between 0.8% and 1.5% of the population subscribe to the service.
If the company proves a success in Slovakia, he hopes to extend it to other small countries in Europe.
Worldwide media organizations have recently tried with charging for content.
The New York Times, for example, currently trying to launch a paywall for the second time.
They will no doubt among the many watching the roll-out project with interest.
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