PAYWALL AS A MODEL OF FUNCTIONING FOREIGN AND UKRAINIAN ONLINE MEDIA

Abstract

Mass media have undergone significant changes during the global development of the Internet. Easy access to content creation and distribution, blogging, social networks encouraged the media to search for new forms and methods of communication with the audience. The most affected by the changes were traditional media, in particular newspapers, which were forced to reduce their circulation or go online entirely. However, this format also needs to be changed due to financial problems. One of the common mechanisms of functioning in global online media is paid content, the so-called paywall. This approach involves attracting funds from readers through a monthly subscription or paid individual materials. In the USA and Western European countries, paid content in online media began to be introduced at the beginning of the 21st century. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were among the first media to resort to such a tool for attracting funds from readers. If the New York Times simply limited the limit of free materials to twenty, then The Wall Street Journal completely limited access to the full versions of its publications. Different models of paid content have also been introduced by French and Australian online media. Kyiv Post newspaper introduced such a model for the first time in Ukraine. However, this means of mass information is not intended for a wide audience, and was immediately aimed at a niche audience. Therefore, we believe that the first socio-political Internet mass media in Ukraine that resorted to the paywall model was the edition "Novyi Chas", which began to work according to this scheme in 2020. Liga.net was another Internet mass media, which offered readers an ad-free version of online mass media for a nominal fee. The impetus for collecting funds from readers in Ukraine was the coronavirus pandemic, when the number of advertisers decreased significantly. The next challenge was the war, so online media should look for new ways to attract and retain an audience, as well as receive finances for stable operation.