Financial Times Considering Placing Video Content Behind Pay Wall, Adding More Videos

Last week, we told you that the Financial Times was considering turning to PayPal as a means of allowing readers to pay for subscriptions to online content. Today, FT’s lead product manager, Stephen Pinches, who was speaking as part of a panel on the future of video at an industry conference, announced that the finance publication is considering placing its online videos behind a pay wall.

In an argument echoing those of other proponents of creating pay walls for currently free online content, Pinches told those gathered that it is “not a given that video should be free. Some of the most valuable content we have is video content.”

In fact, Pinches noted that FT was encouraging other members of the newsroom besides video editors to produce more video content. FT currently produces between 200 and 300 videos garnering over one million views each month, according to Pinches. He added that advertisers’ interest in video was only rising.

It is yet to be seen whether this means that, like The New York Times‘ proposed midday video broadcast, FT’s additional video content will act as a supplement to written articles, or whether they will stand alone.

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