Fairfax moves The Age and SMH websites to metered paywall
Fairfax has today announced The Age and Sydney Morning Herald websites will operate under a metered paywall for Australian users from the start of next month.
Starting from July 2, both websites (which includes mobile versions) will have subscriptions that range from $15 to $44 per month. Users will be able to browse 30 articles each month before The Age and SMH websites lock out users in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region, who do not have subscriptions.
In March the company announced a metered paywall for readers in North America, Europe and the Middle East.
Allen Williams, managing director of Fairfax’s Australian Publishing Media, said the move is the “single most significant development” to Fairfax’s digital strategy, with casual browsers experiencing “minimal disruption.”
Hi, this is the champagne shop in Surry Hills.
Someone called “The Guardian” just ordered 10 cases of Champagne.
If you think this is silly, have a look at the presentation today by Hywood. They are talking down the print big time yet the biggest chunk of profit left in the place is the Domain “business” and the biggest chunk of that is where? (Duh. It’s in the Metro prints.)
The profits are tanking and there is no – NIL – upside in here because they have totally degraded the products.
1) TOR
2) Refresh IP
3) Unlock
4) Profit…?
Nice to see News Media having their say
@david: or just a few folk taking pot shots at sitting ducks. Either way David the ducks are making no motion.
Courier Mail seems to be paywalled now too.
Pity, my home city newspaper that I USED to read online from news.com.au
-1 Reader
Enjoy oblivion…
I hope they NEVER paywall the NT News!
Seeing as the NT News is owned by News Limited, the chances of Fairfax putting a paywall up on that site are fairly low.
Thanks,
Cameron.
I blame Gina for the ongoing ‘contraction’ of The Age. Ever since she bought a fair chunk of this once fine old newspaper, the place has gone to the pack!
It might end up with her being the the only ‘journalist’ left, given that she sues anyone simply for saying boo and *reluctantly offering $5.00 an hour for any journalist remaining and not actually in jail..
She might indeed be the only one writing behind this so called ‘metered pay wall’ with her personal till ringing every second of the day!
Could this be her fallback career as the mining boom diminishes..?
*I am assuming this would be the offer given her recent comments about really cheap labour..
Following the Fairfax announcement, I have scanned the SMH home page (and News Limited, for that matter) for news articles I REALLY wanted to read.
Let me tell you, there were two or three at most; and none were exclusive.
Furthermore, the same articles were covered for “free” on radio and the “million” iterations (News at 4:00, News at 5:00, News at 5:10, News ad nauseam) of TV news anyway. (Economics 101: Oversupply has simply diminished the product’s value).
I’m sick of them comparing their costs to print media. The Net is a broadcast media with fewer transmission costs than TV news, so what are they doing wrong to suffer from (claimed) falling revenues?
The millisecond the page has loaded, just his escape to stop the pop-up appearing. Then read the page as you normally would. Takes a little bit of practice but works easily once you get the hang of it.
Wow. $25 per month for “Fremium” ipad access. SMH is a great app but $25 per month?? Why not the pay tv model of “packs” I read the front page and one other liftout…. not paying $25 for that per month. I was annoyed for 10 mins until I figured an alternative.
I say ABC online plus a magazine subscription or two that would be $30 per year will cover my needs. Farewell old friend it was fun while it lasted
Anyone who pays to read news is a retard.
Brisbane Times, which is Fairfax’s Brisbane online paper, and 98% of the articles are the same, will not be behind a paywall.
What a joke, there is nothing in the SMH or TheAge that you can’t get reading the Guardian or ABC online. All of the decent business news is in the AFR or FT, so why would anyone pay to access general news? Oh, forgot, maybe it’s for the magnificant quality journalism of Michael Pascoe (not).