CNN to try a news paywall next month

This just in… next month, CNN will start experimenting with breaking some news to paid subscribers exclusively. As reported by The New York Times, the network is trialing a “metered” paywall on its website from early October, which will see frequent readers charged for digital access after reaching a set article limit.

Following in the footsteps of paywalled publishers like the NYTimes itself, the planned subscription model will bring about a major shift in how ~440 million monthly users — 4x the number of visitors that the Washington Post garnered in August, per Similarweb data — are able to interact with content at the most-visited news site in the US.

The move comes as part of CEO Mark Thompson’s plan to restructure the organization, which saw 100 employees laid off in July. This follows a years-long viewership decline at its cable news arm, previously the center of the company’s multimedia empire.

While CNN is still one of America’s most popular cable news channels, cable TV is being superseded by the rise of streaming and social media, where a growing proportion of Americans now get their news from.

Nearly a third of cable subscribers have cut the cord over the past four years, and, in 2023, cable and broadcast made up less than half of TV viewing for the first time ever.