Guardian Drops Subscriptions For Digital Edition
The Guardian has dropped its yearly subscription charges for digital editions of the newspaper, instead allowing customers to pay for content in one-off payments, with some access packages costing as little as £1.50.
The move, which also sees annual subscription costs to The Observer abandoned, is designed to make the newspapers’ online editions more easily accessible, with readers able to buy access for just a few days, rather than a whole year at a time.
The publisher has denied that the move away from yearly subscriptions is due to a decline in popularity, claiming that its business plan had always allowed for a change in its subscription model.
The new payment system, which allows customers to pay by credit card or mobile phone, is understood to be on a shortlist of solutions for controlling access to more of the company’s premium content, with access to the papers’ e-mail news bulletins and crossword sections believed to be next for subscription charges.
However, the Guardian has denied that it has plans to charge for access to its network of Guardian Unlimited websites, which includes the hugely popular MediaGuardian site.
The change in subscription structure comes less than 18 months after the launch of the newspapers’ digital editions. Hailed as a method of cashing in on the increasing popularity of the internet, the titles were put online in March 2004, following in the footsteps of the Times and the Telegraph in replicating the publications completely via the web (see Guardian And Observer Launch Digital Editions).
The Daily and Sunday Telegraph‘s digital editions were created in an attempt to increase the titles’ presence in overseas markets, with content charged at a significant premium to print editions, but allowing access as either a subscription or one-off access (see Telegraph Launches E-Papers For Overseas Market).
Meanwhile, the Times launched an electronic version of its daily newspaper in 2003, with subscriptions initially offered at £49.99 a year, although this has since risen to £89.99 a year (see Times Launches Daily E-Paper For Online Subscribers).
The Guardian: 020 7478 5240 www.guardian.co.uk