"paywall", "pay(-) wall" (2004?)

[Chris Waigl]

I'm seeing the word "paywall" used more and more often on the sites I
read. The word isn't mentioned in the ADS-L archives, that I can see. It
denotes an access control mechanism that enables web site owners (news
outlets for example) to make particular pieces of content accessible to
paying subscribers only. Typical usage: "The article is behind a
paywall" or "the New York Times paywall".

For-pay-only content isn't new, of course, but the word might be.

The earliest occurrence on Usenet according to Google Groups is
interestingly in the HTML source of a web page from Mother Jones
magazine, first in a comment and then in a class attribute, which are
part of the markup that implements precisely this function of the web
site. This shows that web designers working for such companies call it
"paywall", too:

----
<!-- Paywall Box Start -->
[...]
function test_cookies()
{
  document.cookie = "PaywallTest=True";
  var allcookies = document.cookie;
  if (allcookies.indexOf("PaywallTest=True") == -1) {
    document.location =
"http://www.motherjones.com/about/services/nocookies.html";
    return false;
  }
  return true ;
}
[...]
<div class="paywall-box">
[...]
</div>
<!--end BRIDGE table-->
<!-- Paywall Box end -->
2005/05/04
<http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.princess-diana/msg/b3612da8fd888172>
----

There is no earlier cite for the two-word version on Google Groups.
Google Print yields nothing.

But May 2005 isn't particularly early. Via Technorati (228 hits), the
following early blog posts:

----
Over at Macfixit, there's a good article (for Mac aficionados) about The
"Opener" scare and keeping malicious scripts off your Mac. Though as the
content goes behind a paywall after a day, I thought I'd flag it here.
26 October 2004 <http://www.charlesarthur.com/blog/index.php?p=189>
----
Frank Rich of the New York Times reflects on the deeper meaning of this
in an outstanding essay today. (Hurry before it scurries behind the
paywall.)
November 18, 2004
<http://dave_blog.blogspot.com/2004/11/censoring-private-ryan-its-week-old.html>
----
The OSCE must be doing something right, given the loud yelps of dismay
from Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov in the FT today (warning:
hidden behind paywall).
November 29th, 2004
<http://crookedtimber.org/2004/11/29/spreading-democracy-in-practice>
----

And in two words, hyphenated or not (337 Technorati hits, many irrelevant):

----
If, on the other hand, a site copied our content with no attribution and
put its own advertising around it, or put it behind some sort of pay
wall, I would see a reason to get upset.
October 19, 2004 <http://www.holovaty.com/blog/archive/2004/10/19/1224>
----
The KNX 1070 reporter and political editor retires today. LARadio.com
collects the tributes behind the pay wall.
October 21, 2004 <http://www.laobserved.com/archive/002615.html>
----
As News.com's Jeff Pelline wrote, Dow Jones is half-a-billion dollar
investment is a dramatic attempt to both catch-up and not lose ground (a
less expensive strategy was seen last week when WSJ.com lifted its
pay-wall).
November 16, 2004
<http://www.saila.com/columns/lcky/?2004_11_14_archive.shtml#lcky200411151012>

Chris Waigl

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