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Feature request: Ability to have site images/collections be able to be behind a hard paywall that is section specific

Rob Weir 6 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Kevin M. Cox 6 years ago 1

Hi there, 


At the request of Joanne Sandy, I'm posting this here as a feature request. 


The Columbia Missourian has an editorial cartoonist, Jon Darkow, who is well known in our area. We would like to be able to run his editorial cartoons on our site, behind a hard paywall. 


Right now, the TownNews paywall configuration is to either protect all images on the site, or none. Because these editorial cartoons are images, we'd like the ability to paywall just those images within a given section (in our case, /opinion/darkow, but this would vary at other TN sites). 


She asked me to answer these questions: 


1) What problem(s) does this idea solve? Why do you need this idea implemented? Provide as many problems or use cases as possible.


The problem this would solve for us is allowing only certain types of content to be paywalled, rather than an all-or-none solution for photos. 

2) How often would you use this feature?


Several times a week. 

3) How many people in your organization would use this feature?


In the organization, only a couple of people who design the opinion section. But for the community and for subscription purposes, many more. 

I've always thought it was weird that Collection assets ignore the paywall settings for the sections they are in. I'd be curious to hear the explanation for why that is, I'm sure there is a technical reason behind the scenes.


I could see it being useful to have other assets types besides article respect URL paywall settings. I'm sure there is a technical issue to resolve around the following scenario though:


Article is in front of the wall. Child photos are behind the wall (based on section URL). In that case we need to make sure the photos are still viewable like the parent they are assigned to.