'E&P, tear down this wall!'

When former President Reagan told the head of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down The Berlin Wall in 1987, he was asking for change and openness across the Eastern Bloc.

Editor & Publisher magazine wants that same change and openness for its readers. This week, it tore down its website paywall, allowing visitors to view more of the magazine's exclusive content.

"We have not been big believers in paywalls," said Duncan McIntosh, president of Duncan McIntosh Company, Inc. (DMC), which publishes E&P. "Paywalls in name alone connote a psychological negative, which is one reason we have never been big believers. Nielsen had been using one for a number of years, but nothing during the past year has changed our opinion about them. We have removed it to build more traffic and make more of our original content available to our visitors."

Second, E&P has promoted Adam Tessin to technology director. Tessin will perform a much-needed overhaul of the online site in the first quarter of 2011.

Tessin has been the Web Developer and IT manager for E&P and DMC's four other publications since 2002. He oversaw the transition of E&P from Nielsen. He also did a complete redesign of one of the company's other websites, including building a proprietary CMS and an all-new user interface on a new framework. He also has been a business technology consultant for Best Buy for Business/Geek Squad.

Editor & Publisher is the authoritative magazine covering all aspects of the newspaper industry, including business, newsroom, advertising, circulation, marketing, technology, online and syndicates. The magazine dates back to 1884. Owned by the Duncan McIntosh Company, Inc. since January 2010, it is based in Irvine, Calif.

Published December 10, 2010

From Editor and Publisher:
http://bit.ly/eTnOw5