FT adds another niche paid site to its content stable

Posted by Savita Sauvin on September 7, 2010 at 12:36 PM

The Pearson-owned Financial Times will launch a subscription based news and analysis website covering the pension sector for trustees and pension managers in the United Kingdom, called schemeXpert.com, paidContent.co.uk reported yesterday.

The content on schemeXpert.com will be produced by a dedicated in-house editorial team with insights from leading consultants, lawyers, investment houses and research bodies, according to MNILive.com. Aggregated news and analysis will also be provided to subscribers.

This is the seventh niche paid news offering by the newspaper in its efforts to reduce "reliance on more cyclical advertising," a spokesperson for the newspaper told paidContent. The financial group has been making significant efforts to reduce dependency on advertising revenue, from 74 percent in 2000 to just 45 percent in 2009, by increasing subscriptions on its news site in the recent years.

"SchemeXpert.com is an essential tool for anyone actively engaged in the UK pensions industry," Owen Walker, editor of schemeXpert.com, told MNILive.com. "At the Financial Times, we understand the need for timely, relevant and insightful information of the highest quality and we've taken these principles and applied them to schemeXpert.com. Users will only ever receive information that's of genuine use to them and adds a real benefit to the work they do."

The newspaper did not disclose the cost for paid access, nor was the upfront price put up on the financial news site. Potentially interested subscribers will be required to submit a form on the news site with all details, and they will be contacted by the newspaper's sales team with detailed pricing information, MinOnline.com reported today. While non-registered users will have access to only an article a month, registered users can access up to five free articles a month, and paid subscribers will enjoy unlimited access with storage repository and specialised customisation features to personalise content, share documents and communication features on the news site.

In addition to the above, the pension news platform also provides a secure private hub to its subscribers for safe content sharing and group reading, with an intent to improve the decision-making process through use of peer-to-peer forums, according to MNILive.com.

In its recent initiative to boost corporate subscriptions on its news site, the financial daily also launched a global press campaign positioning itself as an essential business tool companies cannot live without.