After months of silence, News Corp.’s UK wing News International has put some details on its plans to turn Times Online paid-only, in a big flagship announcement. We’ll run it in full because it’s so significant.
Update: See exclusive preview of the forthcoming websites.
The key points…
— £1 a day, £2 for a week’s subscription – a compelling argument to go for a week.
— Coincidence? The £1 cost is the same as the daily print paper.
— Customers get access to both sites. Print subscribers get free web access.
— Premium mobile? “New applications” including iPhone apps will also be paid-for. There will also be tablet editions.
— Rebrand? Note, Brooks is calling the new daily site “TheTimes.co.uk”, not “Times Online”.
News International is using the “all for the price of a cup of coffee” comparison. Matching the £1-a-day print price will fuel the fire of those who suspect the aim here is really to drive people back to paper. But the Times is promising plenty of online-native innovation, too.
Guardian.co.uk: “Assuming that only five percent of daily users convert to the paywall system