The Times has given an update on digital subscription numbers and says  The Times and Sunday Times now have 131,000 digital subscribers across all platforms.

That is an improvement on figures it gave in February when News International said its two UK newspaper websites behind paywalls had 119,255 digital subscribers for The Times and 113,818 for the Sunday Times. Read More »

Canadian national newspaper The Globe and Mail is to follow The New York Times and others and begin charging its readers for content. The paper is to implement a metered paywall system although it has yet to announce how much it will charge or how many articles it will give readers for free.

It said the it was moving its plans forward for the paywall in response “to an unpredictable advertising market”, which that has seen both print and digital sales drop this spring at publishers in both North America and Europe. Read More »

News International’s experiment with a non-penetrable paywall around websites for The Times and Sunday Times has been a failure, while the rise of Mail Online has been the “world success story”, according to former Guardian leader, Tim Brooks. Read More »

Copyright violations are the bane of entertainment executives lives. If you stop and listen you might just be able to hear the anguished screams of entertainment corporations, floating through the sky from Hollywood. Conversely, in the UK news industry such copyright infringements are unheard of. Why is this?* Read More »

The Los Angeles Times is to become the latest major online newspaper to put up a paywall. It announced its plans at the weekend and says it will begin charging from next week.

Like the unrelated New York Times, the LA Times has opted for a social media friendly metered paywall and plans to charge an initial rate of 99 cents a month before rising after a four week trial. Read More »

PR firm Portland has released its second NewsTweet Index, which has propelled PoliticsHome.com editor, Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh), to the number one spot in the top 50. Waugh is also the only journalist in the list not from a major media group.

Overall, The Guardian continues to have the highest number of journalists listed in the top 50, with ten represented, but this is considerably less than last time as the list appears to have been broadened out. Read More »

I’ve written a number of blog posts about how, in my opinion, The Times is missing a trick by making its paywall impermeable to social media or put another way how it is anti-social media.

I’ve written how its anti-social media paywall model was rejected by other parts of News Corp and how the Times and The New York Times compare (social media Vs anti-social media).

However, it has emerged that the News International-owned Times maybe about to change that policy and allow a little social media light in and its readers to share some articles. Read More »

While it was reported earlier this week that News International had ditched the idea of a paywall for The Sun other parts of the News Corporation empire are pressing ahead with plans.

The Australian will put its paywall live on Monday, according to News Limited boss John Hartigan, beginning with a three month free trial. Read More »

I wrote earlier this year that News International was rethinking its anti-social media paywall policy with regards whether it would introduce a paywall for the Sun modelled on the one employed by The Times.

It had intially been reported that The Sun would follow in the footsteps of the News of the World, which saw its traffic plummet after its paywall went live, but that turned out to be the least of its problems. Read More »

News International has put out some updated figures detailing how The Times and The Sunday Times paywalls are performing.

Back in March we reported that News International was claiming 79,000 digital subscribers. That figure has risen to just over 100,000 in time for its first birthday. It is a nice round number. Read More »