Times and Sunday Times to charge £1 a day for online news

Fri 26 Mar 2010 6 Comments

man holding newspaper under armThe Times and its Sunday broadsheet, the Sunday Times will be charging users to access its websites from June this year.

News International (NI), fronted by notorious tycoon Rupert Murdoch currently owns the two newspapers and has confirmed users will have to pay £1 for a day's access to the sites, or alternatively pay a week's upfront fee of £2.

Currently, the two newspapers combine their news in the shared site, Times Online. However, ahead of the pay-to-view charges News International will work towards launching two separate sites in early May.

Initially, registered users will be able to access the new sites for a free trial, but after that, daily or weekly subscription will give users access to both sites.

Speaking on the charges News International's chief executive Rebekah Brooks said it was "a crucial step towards making the business of news an economically exciting proposition".

With newspaper sales in decline, News International's decision to charge readers to access content online is one way of making more money, but it comes at a risk. Commenting on the pay-to-view service the BBC News websites, business editor, Tim Weber said there were "many reasons why the Times model is likely to fail", explaining "there is no widely accepted system of online micro payments for consumers of news".

Of course, online competition could also contribute to a failure of this payment system. There's a valid argument readers will simply turn to other reputable news sources or rival newspapers who offer their news for free.

What you do you think about the prospect of paying for access to newspaper content online? Would you be willing to pay up to £2 per week to access the Times and Sunday Times websites? Let us know below.

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Comments

  • neutral

    by Duncan at 12:25 on 26 Mar 2010Report abuse

    Would I pay for newspapers online? Maybe. Would I pay for the Times online? Never.

    Quite frankly, although the Times is actually a good newspaper, it suffers from all of the typical problems of the British print media - an excessively Anglocentric focus, an inability to have a balanced, factually-correct article on Europe and also, although it's better than most newspapers at this last one, it still has difficulties in removing bias from its news stories even on less controversial topics. In short, not willing to pay the cost of a real physical printed newspaper for a day's access to a website when there are better ones for free (BBC News being the most famous) and given how repetitive and samey daily newspapers tend to be I would be unlikely to read it more than once a week.

    As far as what I would pay for - I would pay for the FT if I were earning regularly and I MIGHT pay for the Guardian as they have the best columns in the British press, albeit amongst some of the worst, too. I would also pay if someone could make me never have to read a copy of the Telegraph again :P

  • neutral

    by Carl Barron at 14:43 on 26 Mar 2010Report abuse

    As most revenues in the media come from advertisements it is logical to say that restricting access will only hit ads revenue streams so As I said before ‘Cut Your Nose Off to Spite Your Face’ please do. So prepare to have your investors ads money disappear Murdoch, for who will advertise in a Newspaper when it has a very limited audience?

    Russian entrepreneurs are moving into UK based main stream media, so maybe goodbye Murdoch eventually?

    It is noteworthy that since the The Evening Standard was bought by a Russian business man they can now afford to give the paper away FREE in the Streets of London, now a Russian entrepreneurs has bought The Independent.

    As I said before ‘Cut Your Nose Off to Spite Your Face’ please do.

    Signed Carl Barron Chairman of agpcuk

  • neutral

    by monty at 17:06 on 26 Mar 2010Report abuse

    no - there is absolutely no chance that i would pay for what i can get for free, and if they all go to pay sites I shall be delighted to remain in permanent ignorance of what happens in our dismal and depressing world.

  • neutral

    by nathan at 20:07 on 26 Mar 2010Report abuse

    Well just looking at their Tech news and it seems wanting.
    Everything there is either old news and can be found else where.

    They need to really up their game if they believe people are going to pay for this; Which BTW they won't.

  • neutral

    by rod at 13:48 on 27 Mar 2010Report abuse

    A fool and his money are soon parted - could be Murdoch or could be you, if he succeeds.

    When you pay for content on the internet it usually means you give up your real life identity. That combined with what you think (i.e. read) is an extremely valuable commodity.

    It is also information that can be used against you should it come to that. It infringes on your right to privacy and to hold your own thoughts. It is why authorities shouldn't know what you check out of the library.

    The internet offers tremendous cost savings over print. Murdoch is an extremely greedy man and too stupid to know how to successfully associate content with advertisement or advertisement with content. Or to successfully make the argument that ads should be paid for even if they aren't clicked on.

    The identity driven information Murdoch could glean from you is even greater than anything Google ever imagined.

  • neutral

    by Alex at 09:07 on 28 Mar 2010Report abuse

    When I read a newspaper online, I read one or two articles. If I have to pay the same cost as the printed edition just to do that, I will go elsewhere.

    Even if the price was 10p, and there was a safe and convenient mechanism to make the payment, I would still go elsewhere because of the inconvenience of having to remember and enter yet another password.

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