JAMES HARDING, the editor of the London Times, yesterday gave the clearest indication yet of how News International is going to start charging for its journalism online.
Pledging to "rewrite the economics of newspapers", Mr Harding said the
Times
would charge for 24-hour access to that day's edition of the newspaper alongside a subscription model, but dismissed the idea of micro-payments for individual articles.
Mr Harding said the newspaper business had to avoid the mistakes of the music industry and call time on free distribution.
"We created a culture of free, and we absolutely were party to that," he told an audience of senior editors and executives at the Society of Editors conference in Essex, east of London.
"In the last few years, we have talked with great pride - we believed advertising would sustain us - about unique users. These people were window shopping down Oxford Street, they were not coming into our shops."
He contrasted the Times's 20 million-plus unique users with the 500,000 readers who had developed a "genuine digital newspaper habit".
He confirmed that the Times, in common with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire, would introduce online charging. "From spring of next year we will start charging for the digital edition of the Times," he said. "We're working on the exact pricing model, but we'd charge for a day's paper, for a 24-hour sign-up to the Times. We'll also establish a subscription price as well."
The paper's recent decision to end the free distribution of bulk copies was in line with this strategy, he said.
Mr Harding said the Timeswould enhance its relationship with its most loyal readers through home delivery and a reward programme through the recently launched Timesmembership venture. "Historically, newspapers have treated their best customers worst and their worst customers best," he said. "We give the paper away to people who could not care less and we pay little or no attention to people who love it and read it every day."
He said newspapers should be wary of micro-payments for individual articles. "You have to be very careful with article-only economics. You will find yourself writing a lot more about Britney Spears and a lot less about Tamils in northern Sri Lanka."
Indicating the costs of quality journalism, Mr Harding said it had cost the Times£1.5 million (€1.7 million) to run a Baghdad bureau for the duration of the Iraq war and £10,000 to send a correspondent to report on violence in northern Sri Lanka.
"We keep investing in journalism, we believe that's what our readers want. We're not dumbing down, we're dumbing up."
Mr Harding said newspapers had been undervalued for years, pointing out that when the Timeswas founded in the 18th century it had cost more than double a cup of coffee or a tumblerful of gin.
He struck a more conciliatory note on Google than Mr Murdoch, who last week threatened to take content from News Corp's papers off the search engine's index.
Mr Harding suggested the Timescould find a compromise that would exploit Google's reach while keeping its paywall intact. - ( Guardianservice)