The UK’s highest-circulation regional daily newspaper has introduced its pay-for website, which we previewed last month.
MNA’s Wolverhampton-based Express & Star launched Express & Star 24, a premium, sister adjunct costing £2.81 ($4.56) a week for web and mobile access.
Bizarrely, since VAT isn’t added on newsprint, the digital bundle with an added newspaper delivery comes in cheaper, at £2.34 ($3.8) a week. And it means the paper can add numbers to its *ABC* print circulation.
That appears to be the rationale behind the strategy. With digital access thrown in, the cost is basically the same as for the £0.40 ($0.65)-a-day Monday-to-Saturday print editions were already. Many publishers, like The Times at national level are striving for these ongoing subscriptions to guarantee revenue visibility and to lock readers is as loyal rather than promiscuous.
Express & Star 24 will include news, traffic, weather, travel updates, opinion writers, football analysis, photos and the paper’s online edition. Everything on the title’s main website homepage appears to remain free.
Express & Star‘s website traffic is growing nicely, though its print circulation is creeping back…
