The Belfast-based Irish News started by charging for its digital edition. Now, it has begun also selling to other newspapers the technology it developed to create and charge readers for those digital editions, As Laura Oliver reported for journalism.co.uk, the paper has "turned its own paywall into an extra business opportunity."
The regional daily replaced its mix of free and paid online content with subscription-only access to a digital edition for which readers pay £5 per week, £15 per month or £150 per year. Citing Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, journalism.co.uk says the Irish News' online edition has 320 annual, 370 monthly and 525 weekly paid subscriptions.
It quotes Systems and Resource Manager Liam McMullen saying, "Now readers have a clear and equitable choice, pay for a printed newspaper or pay for the same paper online."
Dissatisfied with available third-party digital-edition technology, the Irish News created its own, affording more control of the product and better service to subscribers, according to Mullen, who added that the subscription system devised by the paper is less complex than the system it replaced.
Since the paper has licensed its subscription and digital edition solutions to regional weeklies, with the cost starting at £465. A package can include server, bandwidth and video streaming.
The report noted that revenues from ads had covered little more than the costs of carrying them. The paper is now exploring ad-targeting made possible by mobile devices' geolocation capabilities.
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