It’s been a big week in newspapers starting to charge for content. First it was Gannett; now the Los Angeles Times will launch a metered paywall on Monday, March 5.
The paper announced
the changes today. Website visitors will be able to read 15 stories per
month for free before the paywall kicks in. They will be charged an
introductory rate of 99 cents for the first four weeks; thereafter, the
paper will charge $1.99 per week for a website-plus-Sunday-print-edition
package and $3.99 per month for website access only. The LA Times says
the digital subscription also includes “retail discounts, deals and
giveaways.”Kathy Thomson, president and COO of the LA Times Media Group, says the company “priced the digital subscription with the Sunday newspaper at a lower rate because they are complementary products.”
Access to the paper’s website through mobile phones and tablets remains free for now, but that will change in the future.
In a cost-cutting move, a new weekly lifestyle section launching March 10, “Saturday,” will combine the health, food and home sections, and “those sections will phase out as stand-alone portions of the paper by March 3 but will remain available online.”
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the LAT has an average daily circulation of 572,998 (down 200,000 from two years ago, says the LAT) and the website has 34.8 million unique monthly visitors.
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-los-angeles-times-to-add-paywall/
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