Times begins charges for online readers (BBC)

The Times newspaper has begun charging readers to access its online content.

From now on, access to the Times and Sunday Times website will cost £1 per day, or £2 a week if readers sign up to a subscription.

News International, which owns the papers, announced plans to impose charges earlier this year in response to falling advertising income.

Currently the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal are the only major papers to have similar paywalls.

All other national papers offer free access to their sites, but are likely to watch the launch of the Times paywall closely.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10480666.stm




The Times is now a Murdoch rag, so something to keep an eye on.

I find the very concept of a news-embargoing paywall to be deeply offensive. Yet I also know that these companies have to turn a profit somehow, in order to survive. (Okay, maybe not Murdoch's little empire, but it is even true of the corporate press.)

That's the quandary. A new business model is needed. Problem is, we just can't snap our fingers and cause one to appear.

--d!