Sunday Times to launch standalone website
News International is planning to launch a standalone Sunday Times website with paid-for content.
The new website plans, which are still under discussion but are thought to include charging readers for online content, come less than a month after Rupert Murdoch said he wanted to test the pay model on British titles (see Murdoch set to charge for online content).
Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News International owner News Corp, is keen to build of the success of the Wall Street Journal‘s pay model.
Last month, Murdoch said he would trial the model on elements of his stronger titles, in a similar way he charges people for the WSJ’s online business news.
“You can expect to see something in the next 12 months. We are planning to introduce a pay model across all our properties but we will test it first on some of our stronger properties,” Murdoch said.
He claims the online pay model could offset the fall in print revenues within two years – News Corp reported a 47% decline in operating profits to $755 million (£498 million) in Q1 2009.
“Two years, hopefully less, possibly more. We are looking at lots of things, models for charging, mobile readers. I don’t believe in the [electronic reader] Kindle model but I do think it is very interesting that people are going to that and to their BlackBerries to view content. There are lots of ways we can make money from content over and above the advertising market,” Murdoch said.
Sunday Times content is currently published online with its daily sister title The Times under the umbrella of the Times Online website brand.
However, the new standalone site is expected to launch this year, once plans of how to charge readers – either by subscriptions or micropayments – have been finalised.
It is understood that News International will not make its current Sunday Times subscribers, or readers who have the paper delivered, pay for online access.
The launch of a new Sunday Times site falls in line with Murdoch’s wider plans to change the company’s internet business model, after claiming that the current model is “malfunctioning”.
In the latest ABC release, the Sunday Times was the only title in the overall Sunday market to record a rise in circulation, up by 1.5% year on year, adding over 19,000 copies to its total, giving it a circulation of more than 1.2 million (see ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: April 2009).