Extra! Extra! Read All About You: Rob Runett, director of electronic communications for the Newspaper Association of America, says small and medium-sized papers are also following in the footsteps of the major dailies. To get access to articles, readers are increasingly required to provide such data as age, ZIP code, gender and, in many cases, information about income and personal interests.
The motive is a basic one. Newspapers want to make money from their websites. And since most readers are unwilling to pay for content in a world where online news is widely available for free, making money requires selling advertising.
To convince advertisers to spend online, newspapers say they need to get enough data about their users to tailor ads to the most receptive possible audience. Thus, it's necessary to have enough data about its audience to determine, say, how people live within driving distance of a particular store, or which readers would be most interested in offers from luxury-car dealers.
