The Boston Globe has unveiled a new pay site, BostonGlobe.com, for readers looking to access the newspaper’s full content online. But in an unusual step for introducing a paywall, the Globe is keeping its free site, Boston.com, which had been the paper’s main online vehicle since 1995.
Print subscribers can access BostonGlobe.com free of charge, while those who don’t receive the paper must pay $3.99 a week or $208 a year for digital-only access. The Globe is adding a number of multimedia features in hopes the paywall will not reduce the flow of online traffic or advertising revenue.
Market anticipated for two Boston Globe online sites
Globe Publisher Christopher Mayer thinks that different news consumers could be receptive to having two sites. “This was an opportunity to build something brand-new and to have it front and center and really do justice to the brand promise The Boston Globe offers to its readers,” he told Globe readers September 12, 2011.
BostonGlobe.com will have the entire daily and Sunday paper and regular news and sports updates. The site also can be accessed on iPads and smart phones, and will offer additional video and photographs, and archived back issues. Other readers can see stories from the site through links on blogs, social media, and e-mail without incurring a charge, though access is limited to that article.
Varying features are being designed to automatically adjust page layout to the device being used to read the Globe. The advanced functions will work on most devices with a browser, Mayer said, but they work best on the most recent version of browsers and those that support programming language HTML 5, such as the latest versions of Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari.
The pay site’s arrival means that for the first time Boston Globe content will be separated from Boston.com, which will continue to have breaking news and sports coverage, more bloggers, entertainment listings, and selected items from the print version of the Globe. A limited number of feature stories will appear on Boston.com after publication in the Globe. The paper’s columnists have already shifted to BostonGlobe.com.
The paper’s move is intended to appeal to news consumers who want information more promptly and might be less willing to pay for it. The Globe thinks some readers may use both sites.
Boston.com will have story summaries that are only available in their entirety on BostonGlobe.com, which will allow readers to save an article for later reading offline on any device. The feature to save an article for that purpose is not available in Internet Explorer 7 or 8. The paper may seek other dedicated mobile apps for iPhones and iPads.
New York Times paywall based on metered model
The New York Times, which owns the Globe, now charges non-subscribers to access the paper’s website in a metered model after viewing more than 20 articles a month. The Washington Post has said it has no plans to adopt any pay system.
Boston.com will remain advertising supported, however, it remains to be seen whether the site will be hurt by the loss of Globe material.
“BostonGlobe.com can get away with its spare look because it won’t be primarily ad-driven,” Joshua Benton said in “Four observations (and lots of questions) on The Boston Globe’s lovely new paywalled site,” in Nieman Journalism Lab, September 12, 2011. “By being subscription-only, it doesn’t need to play the pageview game. Just as Apple laid visual claim to the ‘premium’ computer space years ago by not cluttering up its laptops with ‘Intel Inside’ stickers, BostonGlobe.com is trying to differentiate itself through calm design -- hoping it has a business model to support it.”
The paper would like to convince more people to sign up for the pay site while it waits as well to see if more customers order home delivery (even for Sunday only) to have free access to BostonGlobe.com.
The Globe’s considerably higher home delivery prices could incline some print subscribers to continue in order to go to the new site. Among possible concerns for the paper are whether readers will be confused over which site a particular story is on or if they may go to one of Boston’s other local news sites such as public radio station WBUR.
This change will be an adjustment for longtime Boston Globe readers as they have to differentiate between both of the sites and become accustomed to paying for what has been free.
Sources:
- Casey Ross, “Globe starts far-ranging paid website for all devices,” Boston Globe, September 12, 2011
- Joshua Benton, “Four observations (and lots of questions) on The Boston Globe’s lovely new paywalled site,” Nieman Journalism Lab, September 12, 2011
John Seidenberg - John Seidenberg has worked on newspapers, newsletters, radio news, and produced specialized news publications as well as freelance ...
