Audit
Paywall path review
A close reading of where the meter, the wall, and the ‘subscribe’ line interrupt a story — and which of those stops a curious reader for good.
Some newsrooms do not need a full week reconstructed. They already know the bruise is the wall. This review follows a handful of real stories from first paragraph to the subscribe line and reports, in editorial language, where curiosity dies.
What we open
We pick stories the desk actually ran — a breaking piece, a Sunday longread, a service article people search for twice. For each, we note where the meter clicks, what the wall says in English and in Bahasa Malaysia if both exist, and whether the reader is dumped out of the story or offered a quieter way through. We compare that path with what conference believes is happening.
What you take away
A short annotated set of those stories, plus a two-page note naming the stops that look accidental (a wall after the headline, a meter that counts a refresh as a new click, a Bahasa story walled harder than its English twin). We do not design a new meter. We say which current stops are teaching readers to close the app.
Limits
This review does not include subscriber billing, payment disputes, or print-bundle offers. If the title has no wall and no meter, we will steer you to the measurement audit instead.