The Des Moines Register (owned by Gannett, Inc.) has announced plans to begin charging for access to its online news site later this month.
The newspaper did not disclose how much it will charge for access, but print subscribers will receive full access to its online site, and non-subscribers will get a limited number of free articles each month before having to subscribe.
"Some areas of DesMoinesRegister.com, such as obituaries, the home page, section fronts (such as News, Sports, Business and Opinion), Cars.com and CareerBuilder.com, will remain open to all," the Register Publisher Laura Hollingsworth, wrote in the newspaper May 5.
Lee Enterprises (owner of the Quad City Times) moved a number of its news sites to a similar paywall last year and announced recently it plans to move its other print news sites toward paid access this year.
As subscriptions and print advertising have fallen, newspapers have been trying to develop ways to monetize their online news sites to help offset the low print revenue.
