If you enjoy The Australian‘s even-handed journalistic approach to topics such as the NBN, then you’re soon to begin paying for the privilege. News Limited today announced its paywall structure for the newspaper, with plans for the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun to follow at a later date.
The paper will be available under a freemium pay model, with basic news stories available for free, but premium content like features falling behind the paywall. The service will start at $2.95 a week, which will include access to the iPad and Android app. Alternatively, $7.95 will offer all that plus a six-day subscription to the actual newspaper.
The paywall will go into place in October. We’ll see how well it performs then.
Trentjp
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 2:08 PMEven handed?
Terence D
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 1:10 PMSarcasm for the lulz :D
dave
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 2:31 PMyea, i dont pay for news.
in fact, i dont pay if i dont have to:
free public transport (cost to much, not worth it)
free coffee (thanks work)
free food sometimes (thanks coles for incorrectly marking your items)
free house (thanks to the 4 people who live with me and cover my mortgage – go share housing!)
free movies + music + TV shows (yea, im not paying that much, it is not worth it)
thats all i can think of now
Samuel of Kadina
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 2:43 PMUnfortunatley, the font Sarcastica for use when being sarcastic in text form has not yet been invented.
huu
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 2:44 PMWhy pay for news which you can get else where free on the internet? And the likes of Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun get their else where anyway sometimes Plagiarise word for word. They are loosing subscription because its crap, so they think by charging for it they come back? what kind of logic is this?
attila
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 3:11 PMJournalists have to get paid somehow. Media companies are trying to work out which model works.
David S.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 3:48 PMIndeed, and they have plenty of evidence already that this particular model *doesn’t* work. But they just keep banging their heads against the bricks hoping that magic will happen and this time it will…
The idea that anything the Murdoch press produce could be called ‘premium content’ is just laughable. Almost as laughable as the idea that anyone would pay for the rantings of their demented columnists and editors when any amount of mad rantings are available on the internet for free!
attila
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 4:47 PMDo they? They have the WSJ and the Times behind a pay wall, and the AFR has been behind a paywall for ages for Fairfax.
Chris
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 4:07 PMRiiighhht. And by “model that works” you mean “model that delivers dumpster-loads of cash like the good ole days of the printed newspaper”. It ain’t ever going to happen. Perhaps Murdoch et al could just make do with a bit less the same as the rest of us have to.
Cameron
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 3:32 PMNothing of importance was lost.
Porles
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 3:39 PMWhat’s to stop someone from going somewhere else on the internet for their news?
I don’t even..
Neil
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 3:40 PMGood on them for trying to figure it out but I don’t pay for the horrific garbage they call journalism now and I never will
Don
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 4:19 PMNews Corp isn’t news.
Steve
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 4:23 PMI bet you are still broke Dave!
Rob
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 4:48 PMprivelage?? privilege!
Mike B
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 5:53 PMAh dave… saving so much money and yet just so very poor in every other way… Tragic.
Wok
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 6:26 PMHah. ABC is nice and free.
Peter
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 10:27 AMAgreed, dropped the ravings of News.com.au for the ABC weeks ago and haven’t looked back. Awesome use of taxpayers money
Adam Santos
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 9:06 PMEven handed? Is that like Gizmodo’s balanced opinion of the NBN?
The issue here is that the Australian isn’t in the same league as the WSJ and the Times.
What Fairfax should do is create a Fairfax subscription, giving users full access to all Fairfax newspaper and magazine content. That might *just* be worth paying for.
Chris
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 9:37 PMThey couldn’t pay me enough to read their biased garbage. And they think I would pay???