The Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province and the National Post are the latest Postmedia-owned papers to introduce paywalls for their digital content on the web and mobile devices. Using a metered model, newspaper readers will now be able to view up to 15 free articles every 30 days, after which they will receive an automatic prompt to purchase a digital subscription package. Non-subscribers will still have access the newspaper’s homepage, breaking news and blogs.
Print newspaper subscribers will continue to have full access to all content on all of the paper’s digital products.
Each newspaper will offer its own digital subscription package and will charge readers separately. The Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun and The Province are each offering an introductory rate of 99 cents per month for access to all online content and mobile offerings for the first 30 days.
According to an article in The Globe and Mail, The National Post will only charge international visitors to its website and mobile app – it will offer access for 99 cents for the first month, and then $9.95/month afterward. This international model will also be applied to the Gazette in Montreal, which already has a metered paywall for domestic readers.
Postmedia began testing this metered paywall model in May 2011 on websites for the Montreal Gazette and the Victoria Times-Colonist . The Times-Colonist has since been sold to Glacier Media.
