News Corp to launch ‘Project Alesia’

News Corporation is planning to launch its digital news platform before Christmas, said to be called ‘Project Alesia’ internally.

The project will see a range of newspaper content become available across all digital platforms including the iPad and Google’s Android operating system.  The platform will feature News Corp’s core print titles along with third party content – rumoured to include other national newspaper titles – and will be accessible to consumers via a monthly subscription.

Project Alesia (which is apparently named after one of Julius Caesar’s greatest military victories) is News Corp’s aim to convince publishers to unite behind a paywall, in an effort to encourage consumers to pay for digital content, rather than let news and search aggregators give it away for free.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned company is rumoured to have spent tens of millions of pounds on the project this year, which has had around 120 people working on it away from News International’s head quarters in Wapping.

It is thought the Times publisher has been in talks with rival publishers for some time to create the news consortium.  They are said to be looking to charge around £10 a month for access to the platform.

Last week, Newsline did a snap poll to find out if people would be willing to pay that much to access a joint national newspapers website – of 1,000 respondents, only 3.8% said yes. Interestingly, that was comprised of 6.3% of 16 to 34 year olds; 2.5% of 35 to 54 year olds; and 1.75% of 55 year olds and over.

It is understood the platform will carry advertising and sponsorship.  US-based Jonathan Miller, News Corp’s chief digital officer, is thought to be heading up the project.