Rethinking Paywall Leak Strategies after Chrome’s Incognito Update
A recent update by Google to their browser has created concern within the publishing community — but it may also provide opportunity.
Website audience members have long been using Incognito Mode to dodge digital paywalls especially ones that have ‘meters’, or article counts. As the publisher can’t track the user, their system might assume that the visitor is a new user and reset the number of articles left to read — in effect, allowing the reader to read as much as they want for free. To combat this, publishers have been able determine that a private session is occurring and redirect the user — or even block the user.
With the release of a Chrome update, the browser system will be modified to remedy a method used by publishers to recognize if an audience member is in using the private browsing feature ‘ Incognito Mode’. In a statement, Google says:
“People choose to browse the web privately for many reasons. Some wish to protect their privacy on shared or borrowed devices, or to exclude certain activities from their browsing histories. In situations such as political oppression or domestic abuse, people may have important safety reasons for concealing their web activity and their use of private browsing features….
“Our [Google News Lab] teams support sites with meter strategies and recognize the goal of reducing meter circumvention, however any approach based on private browsing detection undermines the principles of Incognito Mode. We remain open to exploring solutions that are consistent with user trust and private browsing principles.”
With the release of Chrome 76 scheduled for July 30 2019, the team here at Wallkit, the paywall and subscriptions platform, have been discussing the opportunities and challenges for publishers, and within this article we share some ideas and practices with the hope that it will provide helpful direction (and discussion):
Stop The Leaks
Our biggest recommendation would be to stop having a leaky paywall strategy for strangers. There should be no meter in effect for strangers or non-registered readers. Instead create two types of content: free content for all and content for subscribers.
- The free content is your carrot to attract subscribers, but it could also be branding and messaging to larger groups who may never subscribe.*
- The subscription-only content does not necessarily need to be charged for. You just want the reader to have subscribed so that you have their details (email as a minimum).
Select By Origin
You could try to maintain a leaky strategy when people come from sites that drive traffic, like Facebook or Twitter. That seems complicated, time-consuming, prone to breaking, and could still be misused by audiences.
Sharing Is Caring
Instead of having a counter for strangers that shows (or hides and just counts) the number articles left to access, consider creating a ‘shares’ counter instead for subscribers. Subscribers (paid or non-paid) could share a fixed number of articles each month to friends and colleagues. The links sent would be unique and could only be used for one time.
Game Points
An alternative to ‘shares’ might be through the use of Points. At Wallkit, we’re expecting greater gamification as publishers turn their audiences into members. There could be a way for paid-members to spend “points” — for example, if a member has 10 points, they could can share 10 pieces of content with 10 people.
A ‘Classpass’ Approach To Leakiness
At Wallkit, we still worry that the consumer (or even a business reader) will only want to pay for a certain number of subscriptions — yet every publisher is trying to charge for their own subscription independent of every other media title. A better approach for the consumer and the publisher is the idea of a networked leaky paywall strategy — one which allows readers from other publications to access your content. This is a key to the architecture we built into Wallkit — to allow publishers to share readers across their titles and even across other publishers’ titles. Networked leakiness is the new approach to leaky paywalls.
To conclude, the Wallkit team think that the Chrome 76 update will create a new direction when it comes to paywalls and publishers’ application of them. Some of the strategies that have been applied to date will need to end quickly — and new approaches applied. While painful adjustments need to be made today — we expect new creative approaches to membership and subscription that will lead to a growing number of successful media businesses.
We welcome comments, ideas and ‘builds’ on this discussion.
