Condé Nast planning to put most, if not all, its titles behind paywalls

Condé Nast intends to implement some form of a paywall on all of its digital media brands. These receive more than 100 million visitors each month. Already,the paywall is well established in such titles as The New Yorker, Wired and Vanity Fair. 

"I don't think anyone should be surprised to hear that a publication is going behind a paywall these days," says Sean Griffey, founder and CEO of the digital-first B2B firm Industry Dive. "What is surprising to me is the blanket statement that all Condé Nast publications will go behind a paywall. A paywall can be a viable model for a publication, but it isn't a viable model for every publication. The business model has to match both the content strategy and audience."

Samantha Barry, editor-in-chief of the now digital-only Glamour, which unveiled its redesigned website days after the paywall news broke. "Here’s the thing about paywalls," Barry told Cheddar in an interview posted Wednesday. "One of the great things at Condé Nast is that we can learn from the other publications. I think the paywall will take different variations based on the publication. We’re in the exploratory phases of what that looks like for Glamour."

Condé is suggesting that paywalls may only apply to "niche content".