10 years ago, paywall paved the way for Folha’s digital transformation

Ten years ago, a pioneering initiative paved the way for the digital transformation of Sheet. In June 2012, the newspaper became the first in Brazil to adopt a business model that would become a benchmark: the so-called porous paywall.

The success of the format, initially adopted by the British Financial Times and the American The New York Times, showed that there was, also for journalism, a possible path in the transition to the internet, as occurred in areas such as music and cinema.

Developed in-house, the paywall system was first deployed to the HTML5 application in January 2012 for testing before arriving on the newspaper’s website.

In the initial format of this model, the subscription was concentrated among the most frequently accessed Internet users, with a number of texts per month for free reading. Over time, the system became more sophisticated, and today it varies according to the surfer’s browsing habits.

Access to some parts of the site is not counted in the paywall. The covers, the Social Entrepreneur pages, the reader panel and the Training Blog are some examples. Furthermore, in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, the Sheet made the decision to release all texts with relevant services about Covid (see here). On the other hand, there are also exclusive areas for subscribers, such as columns and blogs.

Thanks to the paywall, the Sheet became the first major newspaper in the country to have more digital subscribers than print. Today, according to the IVC (Instituto Verifier de Comunicação), about 300,000 people pay to read the digital versions.

After implementing the model, the newspaper advanced on several other fronts in the digital universe, obtaining new revenue formats to finance its production.

Among these fronts are the organization of seminars, also broadcast over the internet, the launch of several podcasts, the creation of in-depth thematic specials, the creation of new commercial formats on the website, including legal advertising, the implementation of a customized content production studio for clients, Estúdio Folha, separate from the newsroom.

In more recent years, the remuneration of so-called big techs to news producers has become another source of funding. THE Sheet maintains partnerships with Google and Facebook, in addition to investing special funds received for specific projects, such as Voz Delas, from the Innovation Challenge.

“All over the world, professional journalism needs money from
subscribers to remain independent”, says Sérgio Dávila, Editor-in-Chief at Sheet.

“The quality of the content is fundamental to the success of the model”, points out the director of reader market and digital strategies, Anderson Demian. “Most digital signatures currently arrive via links to articles or opinion texts.”

SIGNATURE

To become a subscriber, simply access signatures.folha.com.br and choose the best plan, starting at R$1.90 for the first few months.

By choosing the Folha Premium plan, the subscriber will also have access to the Folha Edition, a replica of the printed newspaper available on smartphones, computers and tablets from 11:15 pm the previous day, and to Folha Mais, an exclusive section that brings more content to those who read the digital newspaper.

The special subscription also offers the opportunity to read the newspaper in the Folha Print Edition app, which has special features and is available on the App Store and Google Play.

The subscriber is also entitled to offer complete access to the Folha website for up to five dependents. In their Minha Folha subscription profile, there is the possibility of including emails so that guests can register and have the content released.