DMGT will not charge for online news

Daily Mail & General Trust will not charge for online news, it told investors yesterday, but will charge for access to mobile and “niche content”.

According to a report in the Financial times, Martin Clarke, publisher of Mail Digital, told investors that “readers will not pay to consume general news online”.

He added that more money could be made from online advertising than from erecting paywalls around the Mail’s content. “Mail Online – uniquely among UK newspaper sites – is now big enough to make the advertising model pay,” he said.

The Mail Online was the UK’s most read online national newspaper in February, according to data released by ABCe.

It reported a daily average unique browser figure of 2.2 million in February, up 5% on January, with an overall monthly figure of 36 million unique browsers.

And according to February UKOM figures, Mail Online was the third most popular news site in the UK, behind BBC News and the BBC Homepage.

According to UKOM, Mail Online had 5.4 million unique users in February, although this was down 5.1% month on month.

The UKOM figures, available on MediaTel’s new online database, show comprehensive traffic data for over 10,000 sites, including unique audience, active reach and gender profile.

Rupert Murdoch’s News International recently announced that it is putting up paywalls around the Times and Sunday Times websites from June, with the Sun and News of the World expected to follow.

From June, users will be charged £1 for one day’s access to the Times website or £2 for a full week’s subscription.