Times Launches Daily E-Paper For Online Subscribers
The Times is launching an electronic version of its daily newspaper, which will be available to online subscribers for around £50 a year.
The e-paper will be unveiled at the end of this month and will have the exact look and layout of the printed title, complete with the full final-edition and supplements.
The title will be offered to Times Online subscribers for £49.99 for the next year, but after that its cost rise to £75 per annum. This equates to around 25p per day, which is significantly less than the paper’s current 45p coverprice.
However, the e-paper will initially only launch oversees as the Audit Bureau Circulation (ABC) does not currently accept electronic editions as part of the audited circulation. This is not the case in many other countries, most notably the US, where e-papers qualify for circulation.
Commenting on the initiative, Paul Hayes, general manager of Times Newspapers Limited, said: “We were the first to introduce premium content services and producing The Times e-paper reaffirms our position as the market innovator. As soon as the ABC accepts the e-paper as part of the audited circulation we will offer it to all our users.”
The latest ABC figures for April show that The Times has seen its circulation decline by 6.2% year on year to 667,658, down from 711,628 in the same period the previous year. This latest initiative could be seen as an attempt by the paper to increase its circulation overseas.
The Independent recently joined a growing list of internet publishers charging for premium online content, with the launch of a new subscription service consisting of a collection of the paper’s best content, which will be available to buy per article or through monthly and annual subscription (see Independent Introduces Paid-For Online Content).
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