Journal Inquirer to charge for online content

Posted by Simon Day on April 16, 2009 at 2:50 AM

Manchester, Connecticut's daily newspaper, the Journal Inquirer, is set to begin charging for online content as well as major major Web site expansion, The Hartford Courant reported. The newspaper will charge US$154 a year to view most stories, and print subscribers will have free access. The Web site will also see new features including reader blogs.

"Advertising on the Internet site has not yet begun to pay anything close to the expense of providing the news to our readers, even as providing the news on the Internet for free threatens to erode the paid circulation that does support the paper," Elizabeth S. Ellis, the newspaper's publisher, told The Courant.

Richard F. Hanley, graduate director of journalism and interactive communication at nearby Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, said the challenge in charging for online content is to make that content valuable enough to attract paying consumers.

"Even then, it may not work," Hanley told The Courant. "The JI is following this spasm in the news business to fight back against free."

The Wall Street Journal is the only other major newspaper in the United States to offer successful paid for online services.