Reuters and CNN are among the global news services that will be charging those who want access to their digital content beyond a free quota. Reuters plans to add $1 per week pricing in the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe in the weeks ahead, while CNN is beginning to ask visitors for $4 a month or $30 per year. Vox Media’s popular tech publication The Verge is also said to be considering subscription fees. The outlets are pursuing digital monetization strategies as ad-supported models are increasingly challenging for those who aren’t Google, Meta or Amazon.

Most CNN.com users “will likely see no change in the experience,” Variety writes of one of the world’s most popular digital media sites. Heavy users “will be asked to consider starting a subscription to the site,” which will start offering premium content behind a paywall that charges a monthly subscription or $29.99 a year.

Variety calls the move CNN’s “second swing at trying to boost revenue from streaming video and digital content.” As CNN changed hands in early 2022, new owner Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the plug on a nascent $5.99 per month streaming video news service called CNN+.

“The hope is that these are our first, very early steps to building a direct-to-consumer business,” CNN Worldwide EVP of Digital Products Alex MacCallum told Variety of his hope to add a “robust business line that complements the affiliate revenue we have and our advertising revenue.”

Direct-to-consumer is also somewhat new to Reuters, “known for licensing its content to other news organizations around the world,” The Wall Street Journal writes, calling its consumer-facing news “just a sliver of its global news operation,” which is supported by “2,600 full-time journalists around the world who churn out news articles and videos.”

A subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, Reuters News reaches 45-50 million unique consumer viewers a month, “drawing traffic from 240 countries and territories,” WSJ reports, comparing that to CNN’s draw of “150 million monthly visitors to its flagship site.”

WSJ observes that the paid-subscription model “has panned out for established news publishers” including itself and The New York Times, while “newcomers could face challenges in an already crowded news and entertainment subscription market,” and “risk eroding web traffic, lowering their reach and appeal to advertisers.”

Reuters will launch digital subscriptions for its website and app in early October, while CNN.com’s first subscription product will launch “before the end of 2024,” according to CNN.