Gannett, the parent company of The Arizona Republic, recently announced that it would begin charging for some content at the paper’s website. An expert explains what it takes to make this business model successful.

Arizona Republic representatives said it’s too soon to talk about the change, so Steven Brill, founder of Journalism Online and Court TV, explains how paywalls work. Brill says that allowing people to read a certain amount of content a month and then charging for further use allows websites to retain ad revenue, but also allows the publisher to get circulation revenue. Brill thinks that as more major paper publishers begin to charge for online content the industry will begin to stabilize.