Thursday 17 September 2009

Spectator puts up pay wall for mag content

As predicted by Guido Fawkes, The Spectator has put up a pay wall and will charge for magazine content viewed online.
Its political blog Coffee House will remain free along with other online content that does not appear in magazine.
To read magazine content online, without subscribing to the hard copy, users will now have to take out an annual digital subscription of £67.50. The Spectator claims to attract 300,000 unique users a month to its website.
Andrew Neil, the chairman of Press Holdings, which owns The Spectator, said: "The idea of a magazine or newspaper giving away its content for free over the internet was never particularly logical, but the industry was feeling its way in a new market. The Spectator has now agreed a clear business model, online and offline.
"Our website is profitable within its own right, through advertisers and sponsors, and its bespoke online content will remain free. But the magazine is a distinct entity and has to be paid for; we are asking those who want to read its superb content to pay for it and we have come up with a variety of ways in which they can do so."

No comments: