Rupert Murdoch's News International has unveiled a membership scheme offering readers of the Times and Sunday Timesaccess to special offers and exclusive events in return for a £50 (€54.50) annual fee.
The membership initiative – called Times+ –will see the two papers attempt to generate revenue from small numbers of dedicated readers instead of hoping to exploit a larger web audience by charging a premium for online advertising.
The new subscription model is based on Culture+ which News International launched last year covering arts and entertainment content in the paper. Culture+ has given members access to special offers and the opportunity to attend events featuring journalists from Times stable.
More than 90,000 people have signed up in the 12 months since its launch, the company has said.
In addition to the news and culture membership packages, News International has also launched a travel club which, it says, gives subscribers access to private excursions and tours, upgrades and discounts and says it plans to introduce new revenue-generating sites covering niche markets in the year ahead.
"Times+ gives us the opportunity to redefine further our relationship with our readers and to reward their loyalty," Katie Vanneck-Smith, the managing director of News International's Customer Direct division said yesterday.
“We are moving away from the traditional model of volume in favour of developing more direct relationships with our customers based on their interests and passions," she continued. Ms Vanneck-Smith, said the aim was to sign up 150,000 members to the new scheme in order to “become less reliant on advertising”.
It is the latest attempt by News International to generate revenue from its online readers. It follows the announcement last month that the Wall Street Journal will begin charging people who access it on mobile devices such as their BlackBerrys before the end of the year.
Mr Murdoch has indicated that his company plans to charge for online access to content. In August he said he wanted to make people pay for access to his news websites by the middle of the 2010 fiscal year, which ends next June. “An industry that gives away its content is cannibalising its ability to do good reporting,” he said.