When I encounter a paywall or registration requirement on most websites, I usually click past them if I can. If I can’t click past the paywall, I will more than likely try to find a free. website or resource similar to the one with the paywall. Also, many websites offer some kind of free version of their site. If this is an option, I will opt for this rather than registering or paying for the site.

However, there are quite a few things that I do pay for online. These include things such as music sites like Spotify. I pay for Spotify premium every month. Like I mentioned earlier, some sites have “free versions” of their content, and Spotify is one of those. However, the free version of Spotify includes advertisements and doesn’t allow you to pick individual songs. For me, it’s completely worth it to pay for the premium version to remove the ads and get the extra benefits.

I also pay monthly for things like Netflix, Disney +, Amazon Prime, Canva, etc. Amazon Prime and Canva are similar to Spotify in that they have free versions of their service, but I choose to pay for the premium (or prime) versions because of the extra benefits. Netflix and Disney + however, do not have free versions and you can’t use the service at all without signing up and paying for it.

In order for me to make that leap beyond the paywall, the service would have to provide something for me that I cannot find elsewhere, and this goes both with services that have free version and ones that don’t. For example, I pay for a monthly subscription to Canva. Canva has a free version of the service, but I pay for the premium version because it has features that I cannot find on other sites programs. The features that the premium version has are much more accessible and usable than what I can find on similar sites that have free versions. I also pay for a monthly subscription to Disney + (which does not have a free version). I pay for this subscription because I have access to movies and TV shows that I do not have access to anywhere else on the Internet (without pirating them, of course). In both of these examples, I go beyond the paywall because the services that they provide aren’t accessible on any other site or program.

For me to make the leap beyond the paywall for digital news, it would require a similar factor. I would pay for a subscription for a digital news site if that website offered me certain features and stories that I could not find or have access to on any other site other than theirs. If any other site free digital news site offered similar features or stories, I wouldn’t see the value in leaping beyond the paywall if the information can be easily found elsewhere for free. In order for me to pay for the subscription to the digital news site, it would need to provide something that is unlike any other free site, whether it be certain features, special stories, or exclusive interviews.