Why Paywalled Tier-1 Media Still Matters Today
In the past years, traditional media has continued to shift - and the online versions have become every outlet’s main source of income. Today, nearly every tier-1 publication is behind a paywall - from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times to Axios, The Information, and Forbes. No matter how big their brand is or how long they’ve been around, they all understand that in order to survive, they have to charge us.
And yet, founders, comms teams, and PR leaders are still competing to land stories in those exact outlets. I’m here to answer why.
The first reason is simple – paywalls do not block the people who matter. Most tier-1 outlets allow a handful of free articles each month – but more importantly, the people who shape B2B ecosystems pay for access anyway. Investors, enterprise buyers, policymakers, CIOs, analysts, academics, and journalists will usually have full subscriptions – as they can’t allow themselves to be out of the loop. These outlets were never designed to reach “everyone”. They’re where serious people go to understand what’s happening in their world.
Which leads to the second point: tier-1 is about credibility, not reach. If you’re building in cybersecurity, AI, fintech, healthtech, enterprise software, or any serious B2B vertical, the audience you want knows and admires these outlets. A tier-1 story is a stamp of seriousness – and the credential that tells everyone your company is worth paying attention to.
But reach still matters, and that’s why we are adapting our media strategy to the ongoing change in the industry. A decade ago, tier-1 coverage was the only way to get in front of a massive audience. Today, it’s just one part of a wider distribution play. If you want scale, you now have LinkedIn, X, YouTube, podcasts, newsletters, and of course your own channels – all of which can get you in front of hundreds of thousands of people.
That means your tier-1 headline can go far even if the story is behind a paywall. Make sure the founders and VCs share it on LinkedIn, find reporters who will repost and discuss it on X, and hope that other outlets, and particularly trade outlets and newsletters, pick it up – as they add a lot of value and context. Your pay-walled headline can travel far – you just need to make sure that your PR and comms teams are taking care of it.
Trust me – people love saying they saw you on a Forbes list, read a NYT opinion, or spotted you in The Information. The audience that matters is willing to pay for it – and that’s exactly why the paywall itself does not matter as much.