As part of a broad relaunch of the Financial Times Internet arm – FT.com – the company will expand the amount of content it offers free, but then to charge the user a subscription rate after a predetermined number of page views.
The new model will enable blogs, news aggregators and other websites to access FT.com content and link to it more freely. It replaces the current restrictions on access to business stories and premium content.
Users will be able to view a total of 30 FT articles per month – including news, columns, analysis and video content – after which they will be asked to pay a subscription. A “light touch” registration process kicks in after viewing five articles.
“Our new access model means FT.com is open for business in a new way,” said FT.com publisher and managing editor Ien Cheng.
“Other publishers have been caught in a stark choice between free versus paid. We are now offering a third way, in which you only pay if you want more than 30 articles per month.”
The figure of 30 page views was not random, but rather based on detailed analysis of FT.com user patterns, Mr Cheng said.
The changes come into effect in the middle of October.
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