This month we saw one of the UK’s biggest newspaper brands move behind an online paywall. The Sun UK site has followed in the same fashion as News Corp’s other national newspaper The Times, by moving behind a subscription based paywall called The Sun+. The paywall offers not only full access to the online site but also provides subscribers with unique content such as football highlights.
The premium football highlights package is one of major advantages offered by The Sun+. This £20m deal which they secured in January this year means the newspaper has the rights to all highlights for Premiership, FA Cup and England International goals and can show them as early as 5:15pm on a Saturday. The Sun+ has also ensured its subscribers can view these goals on-the-go with access via laptops, tablets and smartphones.
The latest data has shown that since the introduction of The Sun+, its site has lost 36 per cent of unique users. Across the same period, the Mirror.co.uk saw a 26 per cent lift. Despite The Sun’s loss, many are seeing this as a positive result. Some are saying the fact they have only lost 36 per cent is evidence that people are becoming more accustomed to the idea of paying for news. Although, this figure may drop further once their introductory offer of £1 for a month’s trial ends – and the subscription of £2 per week kicks in.
MEC opinion
This news comes as no surprise, as Rupert Murdoch has previously suggested all News Corp publications would eventually move behind an online paywall. UK titles will continue to investigate the best way to monetise online touchpoints as paper circulations decrease and user figures online increase.
As planners and buyers, we’ll need to anticipate the suspected drop in users when these paywalls are in place and work out how this affects the effectiveness of our online campaigns as well as what price we should be negotiating at to advertise on these sites. One thing that we can expect is The Sun won’t be the last to make the move across into an online subscription format.