More going-it-alone at the FT
Jinfo Blog

3rd February 2010

By Tim Buckley Owen

Item

Licences for digital images of Financial Times articles will be available only directly from the FT from July. Currently managed by the Newspaper Licensing Agency, existing licences will progressively fall out of use as they come up for renewal. The paper also plans to make its clippings available on FT.com on a limited basis for free and on an unlimited basis for subscribers and direct licence holders (http://digbig.com/5bbate). Both the FT and the NLA will be available to explain the changes in detail and answer questions at a webinar on 16 February (go to http://ftcorporate.ft.com/nla/ to register). It’s all part of the FT’s strategy of building direct relationships with customers rather than operating through third parties – and it comes at a time when the NLA is itself awaiting the outcome of a Copyright Tribunal ruling on whether its own new policy of charging for web links is legal (see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27632 and http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27815 plus NLA responses). Meanwhile FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw has also confirmed that a ‘day pass’ micropayment model for access to online and mobile content will be introduced this year, with pay-per-article likely to follow (http://digbig.com/5bbatr and see Penny Crossland’s posting at http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27062 for further background). Unlike the Guardian, which decided on a one-off payment for its recently launched iPhone app (see Nancy Davis Kho’s posting at http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27740), the FT makes access to its mobile content part of the revenue stream – but there’s plenty of evidence to show that it can afford to monetise all its content because of the special niche it occupies. LiveWire noted last June that, in contrast to the Armageddon facing much of the news content industry, the FT seemed to be doing rather well (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e21244) – and a recent trading statement from the FT’s owner Pearson has confirmed that, in a very tough 2009, subscription-based businesses in the FT Group have remained ‘resilient’ (http://digbig.com/5bbatj). Where information managers purchasing news content on behalf of their organisations are concerned, it increasingly looks like a case of ‘FT and the rest’. But don’t assume that other niche news content couldn’t be charged for as well. Interviewed in the Financial Times recently (http://digbig.com/5bbatk – subscription or registration required), Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall put up a bullish performance despite heavy losses in the last financial year and big debts at business-to-business publisher Emap (see details of its paywall plans at http://www.vivavip.com/go/e26498). Having looked at six different pay models for the Guardian newspaper online, McCall sees no evidence that a paywall would work for general news – but, she adds, ‘that is not to say there are not areas of specialist content that cannot be charged for’.

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