Mexico City (AFP)

The major newspapers in Latin America, financially strangled by the migration to the Web of their readership and advertisers, are increasingly betting on paid subscription models that open up access to their digital content.

Driven by social networks in a mad race for "clicks" and "likes", these media have been forced to jeopardize their credibility and the relevance of their content in order to retain their readers.

“The mainstream mainstream media relied on structures that were often outdated, but supported by an extremely prosperous and profitable business. But those days are over,” summarizes Diego Salazar, Peruvian journalist and author of “We Didn't Understand Anything”. book which deals with the crisis of the journalist profession.

As for the old model of advertising and print ads that for decades suited mainstream and smaller newspapers - coexisting with other mass media - it has been overwhelmed by digital platforms.

With newsrooms cut down by layoffs and drastic cost cuts, newspapers are looking to adapt with a common goal: to make consumers pay for quality journalism.

In Latin America, there are people in demand for quality information and who can pay in return. I am optimistic. There is an audience for subscriptions, "said Jan Martinez Ahrens, director of El País America, of Spanish origin but which distributes editions in Mexico and Brazil, as well as a regional version.

- Useful information -

For Diego Morales, a 49-year-old computer programmer who lives in Mexico City, paying is problematic.

"By making us pay, they limit our access to information", deplores this regular reader of the centennial Mexican daily El Universal who does not wish to take out a subscription.

Eduardo Garcés, managing director of the Colombian daily El Espectador, paying since March 2018, believes that audiences will increase when they get used to "paying for reliable content as they already do for music and entertainment."

In Colombia, nine in ten people consume information online, but only 15% of them are willing to pay a subscription to have free information on the networks, according to a Luminate survey cited by the portal La Silla Vacía.

The situation is similar in other countries in the region.

"Our challenge is to make ordinary people understand (...) that careful, truthful, verifiable and even well presented information is precious", declares Mario Dorantes, deputy director in charge of content at El Universal.

But the temptation to increase the number of "clicks" and reach the widest possible audience has eroded the quality of the information.

Sex, sensationalism or recycling of viral videos posted on social networks are now common resources, including for so-called "serious" media.

"In this race to click (...) many are the media whose prestige has fallen", notes Salazar.

“If you have to convince me desperately that the product you are making is worth paying for, then it's not obvious,” he adds.

- Focus on readers -

In addition to the crisis in the economic model, there is growing mistrust of the press, a phenomenon measured by specialized institutions such as the Reuters Institute.

Its 2020 report, which sifted through 40 countries including Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, shows that on average, only 38% of respondents usually trust the content of the news, compared to 42% in 2019.

In Argentina and Chile, confidence drops to 33% while in Brazil it drops to 51%.

The solution, according to those interviewed, is to insist on journalism that focuses on readers.

It is they, and not the algorithms that organize Internet searches, that should be at the heart of the business.

"I would rather respond to a reader who is angry about the poor quality of an article or who thinks we have strayed from our goals rather than depending on Google and its algorithm, this is fundamental," says Martínez Ahrens from El Pais, which already has 130,000 members since last May.

Although subscriptions have increased worldwide, most people are still happy with free information, with a high percentage of them - 40% in the US, 50% in Britain - arguing that " nothing could persuade them to pay, "according to the Reuters Institute.

© 2021 AFP