DEBUNKED: The Great Philadelphia Paywall Scare

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As you may have seen by now, Philebrity is trumpeting an exclusive on news that Philly.com will be going behind a paywall some time soon, according to what they claim are reliable sources. We have it on good authority, from an even more reliable source apparently, that is NOT true — although the confusion is not surprising given that some senior editors at the paper were unwittingly parroting misinformation. And Philadelphia Media Network CEO Greg Osberg confirmed as much in a meeting with staffers earlier this evening. The virtual version of the print editions of both the Inquirer and Daily News — aka ‘the e-Inquirer’ and the soon-to-be unveiled ‘e-Daily News — will go subscription, but Philly.com will not. At least not any time soon.

In related news, it was announced today that both the Daily News and Inquirer will raise their cover price to $1 at the end of the month. The price of the Sunday Inquirer will remain the same, in an effort to bolster Sunday circulation numbers and attract more advertising. Sources tell us that the Sunday edition is responsible for generating 40% of the paper’s revenue and the circ numbers for the Sunday edition have been dropping steadily for years. The plan is to get those numbers back up with the hopes that more advertising will follow.

Also, expect less national and international wire stories and more local news inside the A section of the weekday edition of the Inquirer. In an effort to emphasize the difference between their respective brands, the Daily News will get even more scrappy and in-your-face and the Inquirer will become even more paper of record-y. Lastly, it was just announced that the Inquirer’s Assistant Managing Editor Vernon Loeb is leaving the paper to become Metro Editor for the Washington Post.

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