Independent and Guardian launch new online venture
Jinfo Blog

By Penny Crossland

Item

The Guardian has alerted us to yet another online newspaper paywall. However, this one has a twist to it:  the UK’s Independent, whose parent company Independent News & Media was purchased by Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev last year,  is introducing a metered model along the lines of the New York Times - read LiveWire coverage here - for its US and Canadian online readers only. UK readers of the site will still be able to access the Independent’s content at no charge. The paper’s international  readership is particularly strong, with almost 50% of traffic coming from outside the UK.

What is interesting abut the Indie’s paywall strategy is the belief that charging UK readers for content is a lost cause, since we are lucky to have an excellent source of high quality, free news from our public broadcaster. Unlike the editors of the FT or the Times, the powers that be at the Independent obviously believe  they are not able to add enough value to stories or produce interesting niche content to charge their UK readers.

 At the same time, the paper, which has recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary, is launching an iPad subscription service and drastically reducing its free bulk copies to hotels, airlines and such like, thereby reducing its printing costs.

The Guardian meanwhile, has started an interesting two week experiment with its readers. As reported by the Editors Weblog, the paper has put its newslist online, which reveals the stories journalists are working on each day before the paper is printed. Readers are encouraged to provide feedback on the popularity of stories and suggest lines of enquiry, which enables reporters to assess where to concentrate their efforts. Readers are invited to contact writers, whose details are on the newslist, via Twitter.

While some may think this venture is a gimmick, since no paper will ever reveal a breaking scoop or anything vaguely sensational, it is an interesting way of engaging readers with newspapers via social media. Information professionals too, will find monitoring the newslist useful. Alerting our customers to stories that have not yet been published – now that is adding value.  The newslist is divided into UK, international and business & economics news. The success of the experiment will no doubt depend on reader involvement, so go and have a look!

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