Leading US newspaper goes for two online sites: one paid-for and one free
Free website or a paywall? Let's have both says the Boston Globe in a unique experiment
Boston Globe
The free site is the original Boston.com., where you accessed that day's paper by adding a slash and the word "globe". It will contain that day's main stories and a summary of others plus a plethora of advertising.
The paid site will be bostonglobe.com - a site with a much cleaner look and "only one ad over the fold." It will cost just $3.99 a week, free if you are a subscriber to the daily (or even the Sunday paper on its own).
Until the end of the month it too is free . In fact boston.com readers were taken straight to the new site when they clicked on the globe link this weekend. A local estate agency is picking up the bill. The Globe is owned by the New York Times which has taken a different tack in in introducing a limited paywall on its much more cluttered site. The Globe which has a circulation of 219,000 daily has been through the wars recently. With a big fall in display ads the paper at one point was put up for sale by the Times , which later changed its mind and instituted staff cuts and economies which they say has returned the paper to profitability. The Globe's new tactic made the front page of Advertising Age under the headline "A tale of two sites" and the comment that it was "one of the more novel experiments " in the drive to get readers to pony up more dollars. Editor Martin Baron said, "I think people will pay for a different kind of experience." Most of the Globe's journalistic content – about 75 percent, saidBaron -- will be exclusive to BostonGlobe.com, said Baron, although sport will still be covered in depth on Boston.com