Times websites to charge for online stories

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

Readers of the The Times and Sunday Times will have to pay to read articles on its website from June, the papers' owner News International (NI) has announced. But newspaper bosses Channel 4 News spoke to disagree over whether the plans will be a success.

The papers' articles and comment pieces are currently available to be read for free on the Times Online website.

News International said it would launch new websites in May for both papers, which would then charge for access from June. Web users will pay £1 for a day's access, and £2 to subscribe for a week.

They will be offered extra web content as an incentive to pay, the company said.

Industry analysis suggests just five per cent of the current Times Online readership of 20 million users will subscribe.

Sunday Times editor John Witherow admitted to Channel 4 News that "only a fraction will pay" to access his paper's content online.

However he believed these readers would be worth more in financial terms to NI: "The ones who are going to pay are going to be loyal readers who just love the Sunday Times and The Times," he said.

Channel 4 News revealed last August that the Sunday Times was planning to charge web users to read its content on the internet.

NI has suggested its other papers, The Sun and News of the World is likely to follow the move.

The Financial Times is currently the only national UK newspaper to charge for online access.

Newspapers across the world have been struggling to make money from the internet, and NI's move will be watched closely by its rivals.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, signalled last August his plans to charge to read his newspapers online.

His company's titles include the Times and Sunday Times, along with the Wall Street Journal and the Australian.

"Quality journalism is not cheap," he said.

"The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites."

Mr Murdoch also threatened to prevent the Google from using News Corporation stories on its search indexes.

Critics say the decision by NI to charge for reading The Times and Sunday Times online could backfire.