The Australian to introduce pay wall by October
News Ltd has revealed long-awaited plans to charge for its online news content, with The Australian to introduce a pay wall for its web properties by October.
News Digital Media’s boss Richard Freudenstein told delegates at Mumbrella360 today that The Australian would introduce a ‘freemium’ model similar to that of The Wall Street Journal, which has more than 1m digital subscribers.
Some content will remain free to attract big audiences, who will then pay to access premium content. “This also allows us to continue to sell advertising to a mass market,” he said.
There will be “no set rule” for how much content would be free, which would be left to the discretion of section editors.
Breaking news, wire stories, broad-interest stories, general blogs and basic stock market data is most likely to be free, while only subscribers will get access to content in our key verticals such as national affairs, business, media, higher education and IT.
The freemium model will give “the best of both worlds”, he said. “We will retain most of our traffic, and the display revenue that comes with it and we will have new subscription income, and a very valuable database of highly engaged readers.”
The launch of a digital subscription for The Australian has been slated for October, at a cost of $2.95 – “the price of one decaf skinny soy latte” – per week. The package will include access to the website, iPad and Android tablet apps and the m-site.
Bundled packages will also be available, giving consumers six days print and digital access for $7.95; The Weekend Australian plus digital will be $4.50 a week. Existing six day a week print subscribers get free access to all digital platforms.
Heading off criticism, Freudenstein compared the transition to paid online content with the advent of pay-TV. “It reminds me a lot of 1994 when I was one of the team that founded Foxtel. I would go to the pub or dinner parties and hear people ask: “Why would I pay for TV when I get five perfectly good channels for nothing?”
Paid online content would, like Foxtel, make money because it has given consumers choice, entertainment, and an experienced improved by technology, he said, using The Australian’s iPad app as an example.
“Right now you can get all the content that is on the app – more in fact – for free, on the same device, by browsing the website. And yet we have thousands and thousands of paid up subscribers,” he said.
People would be happy to pay a subscription fee, because the app delivers content in a form that suits them, wherever they are, he added. “Asking consumers to pay to for content in The Australian “is a very reasonable and very logical, next step,” he said.
Meh…
User ID not verified.
Love to be in the marketing meeting. The pricing and messaging strategy looks like Noodle Nation all over. To be fair, I suppose Hywood won’t even have that much.
User ID not verified.
Good for them! I hope it works. People complain that the media is pathetic these days – but they also complain when they have to PAY. You can’t have it both ways people …
User ID not verified.
It’s hardly a groundbreaking model, but it will be very interesting to see if the quality of their journalism improves prior to the introduction of the paywall: otherwise they could find themselves with few subscribers… The Wall Street Journal they aint.
User ID not verified.
Agree with Liz. Although they will require low subscriber numbers to make the model work I am still at a loss as to why a consumer would pay for content that they can acess for free eslewhere….and to that bettter quality content.
User ID not verified.
I’m planning to buy the NY Times online subscription in the near future – best newspaper in the world by a fair margin – but not the Australian, which lately has become little more than a Coalition propaganda sheet. The Higher Ed section is worthwhile though.
User ID not verified.
“We will retain most of our traffic, and the display revenue that comes with it” – this sounds very optimistic to me. Why would somebody visit your site when they will be blocked from or charged for accessing some of the content and other sites offer the whole package free of charge?
User ID not verified.
Oh dear, there goes the last of News’ political influence.
Preaching to a few thousand converted is not a business model, it’s a church.
User ID not verified.
The Australian does a good job and when push comes to shove with more news sites charging for content it will do well.
User ID not verified.
Hope it works, however, I think it will be a hard slog to sell content in Australia. Australians by nature are very generous until they have to dip their hands in their pockets so it willbe interesting to see how it works for News. Foxtel ,alhtoughi ts now profitable, still has a relatively low penetration rate compared to other westernised countries.
User ID not verified.
I should’ve asked some of this this morning at the conference, but bottled it.
1. What does success look like for this? (Lovely media phrase there). Is it purely about increased total revenue/profit across all channels?
2. Will there be a soft launch, where you have to register (for free), for perhaps a month, before the paywall drops? (The Times did this). I’d be interested to see what the dropoff was just for that.
3. Will Richard consider putting The Australian into a more user friendly-format, like a newspaper that’s not the size of an average breakfast table?
4. What does Richard think will be the long-term implications on the brand for The Australian? If the ‘premium’ content is behind a paywall, then will new consumers fail to see what differentiates The Australian from other media sources? I know that The Times barely registers on my consciousness these days. I buy it when I’m in the UK, but more for novelty value and because I grew up reading it. Are they still attracting new customers, or any increase in circulation due to existing online customers now having to buy the paper?
User ID not verified.
@Hilius Amen!
User ID not verified.
i’d pay for mobile content on demand but on the net … information can be found elsewhere. The content would have to be very unique.
User ID not verified.
OK so they’d have to get 57,000 online subscribers at $153.40 pa (buckleys) to match the revenue that the AFR has from its 7200-odd subscribers today…
User ID not verified.
After listening to that blatant sell job, I certainly hope the rest of the conference speakers are good! Shame I can’t be there.
User ID not verified.
Why on earth would you pay for this subscription when there are excellent publications around the world that you can read on line.
Surely the head of the company who also owns the Wall Street journal has accumulated enough money in his businesses or is it just greed wanting to squeeze more $’s out of News Limited readers.
I will stick to reading global on line news that continues to be free and tells us what is going on in this wonderful world of ours. After all Australia has such a small population and cannot compare with the readership figures of our Asian neighbours.
User ID not verified.
A hilarious puff piece from Mr Freudenstein!
All hail Lord Rupert!
If you believe these outlandish claims of excellence and influence from
News, you’l believe anything – interesting to see what the Freemium results
are once up though … they won;t be as good as he claims I reckon …
User ID not verified.
People missing the point here. The Australian will only be charging for stuff you CAN’T get for free elsewhere.
User ID not verified.
What a joke! “Premium” content – the likes of Greg Sheridan, Dennis Shanahan and Janet Albretsen – or however you spell her name – lecturing Australians on what they should think. Hopefully, they will disappear behind the pay wall and never be heard from again. Further along, can you believe they’d ever try this with their crappy tabloids! The Telegraph is a comic, the Herald Sun is a footy rag, the Advertiser and Courier Mail are just plain snooze-inducing.
User ID not verified.
If you fly anywhere in Australia before 9am on Qantas you’ll get the whole newspaper for free. Bargain!
User ID not verified.
ABC and SBS are free online and the content is wonderful. Surely this is worth a debate (old tv models flourishing online v old flourishing print newspapers getting hit from all angles)…?
User ID not verified.
I liked it at the start when he made people stand up if they’d read the Australian at some point that day.
Did anyone point out that probably 75% of those people in the hall had done so only because it was being given away free at the entrance?
User ID not verified.
Can they please start with putting Bolt behind the paywall.
Pretty Please…..sugar…etc
User ID not verified.