‘Sunday Business Post’ has put up a paywall, while launching a free online news service
THE FOLDING of the Sunday Tribunein February prompted some to wonder whether the Sunday Business Postwould try to capture some of its readers by re-titling itself the Sunday Post– repositioning itself towards broadsheet readers for whom the Sunday Independentis too sensationalist and the Sunday Timestoo British.
With the advent of its digital daily news service this week, however, the paper now seems closer to ditching the “Sunday” element of its title than the “business” part.
In a two-pronged strategy, the Sunday Business Post, owned by Thomas Crosbie Holdings, has put its print edition behind a paywall, while simultaneously launching the Daily Business Post,an online-only free digital news service that is open for news and comment from 7am to 6pm.
Both moves point to an acknowledgement that it cannot rely on print circulation to keep the title afloat. This is something of a handbrake turn in the digital attitude of a publication that until last weekend would delay online publication till 10am on Monday.
The “Monday Business Post” policy was intended to encourage readers to buy the Sunday paper. This was understandable – with no paywalls in operation in the Irish media at the time, and with advertising in freefall, the only way for a newspaper to protect its revenues was to try to stem the decline in its print circulation.
But it also gave an analogue-era two fingers to digitally-inclined Sunday Business Postreaders who, while they may have liked their media to be free, were perhaps even more concerned that it be ink-free.
It also wasn't working. The Sunday Business Post's circulation in the January to June 2011 period was 47,849, according to the most recent ABC figures, down from 57,783 in the same period two years earlier. And despite the delayed publication, the hits to sbpost.ie kept coming.
“We were possibly reducing paid-for circulation as a result of people accessing the paper online when they got into work on a Monday morning,” says the newspaper’s editor, Cliff Taylor. In the meantime, requests from readers for news updates during the week began filling his inbox.
“Obviously to do a paid-for model, we had to upgrade the website itself,” says Taylor. In partnership with Digital Reach Group, led by Colm Grealy, it has developed apps for iPad, iPhone and other smartphones.
The apps are free to download and give the option to buy the premium Sunday content – likewise, its website, which now redirects to businesspost.ie, merges the digital desk’s free daily output with headlines from the “Sunday service”, with green stars indicating the article is behind the paywall. The print edition is available digitally from midnight on Saturday, facilitating anyone who wants to spend their Sunday morning in bed with their iPad.
A single edition digital subscription is priced at €2.39 (compared to €2.60 for a print copy); a monthly subscription is €7.99, a 16 per cent discount on the paper; there’s also a quarterly option at €19.99 (a 34 per cent discount) and an annual one at €69.99 (a 44 per cent discount). The latter three options include archive access.
The Post's chosen model fits with what's sometimes known as a "hard paywall", in that some payment must be made before any of the newspaper content can be accessed – the Timesof London and the Sunday Timesuse a hard paywall, charging €1.50 for access for the first 30 days and €3 a week thereafter.
A "soft paywall" model such as the Financial Timesallows access to a certain number of articles (in the FT's case, 10 per month) before readers have to start paying – this is often referred to as the "metered" approach.
The "freemium" model, whereby the core content remains free but varying levels of add-ons are paid for, is another possible approach. Reuters blogger Felix Salmon argues that the New York Timespaywall is so easy to get around it can be "considered to be a genuinely freemium model". Arguably, for the Sunday Business Post's model to be considered freemium rather than a hard paywall, the Daily Business Postwould have to move centre stage to become the company's core offering. For now, although the paper has appointed a digital editor (Adrian Weckler) to lead the project, resources will remain concentrated on the production of the Sunday newspaper.
The newspaper “considered all the options” on its paywall model, but “went for something straightforward and simple”, says Taylor. Meanwhile, the print edition “will remain as it is”, he adds. “There will be no reduction in what we do on a Sunday.”
Diluting its business brief at a time when niche publications are assessed to have the best chances of raking in digital revenues was never really a “serious” option. “Obviously we considered everything, but our goal was to build on our niche. That’s our place in the market,” says Taylor.
Fiachra O'Riordan, chief executive of the Sunday Business Post, echoes Taylor by asserting that the print edition is "here to stay". Digital subscriptions will count towards its ABC tally, meaning its circulation may even be buoyed by what he calls a "very vigorous" start to downloads.
While it’s still early days on the advertising revenue side, the company was “delighted” to secure AIB as a cross-platform sponsor in what was “probably one of the largest or the largest cross-platform deals done in Ireland this year”, according to O’Riordan, who declined to say how much AIB paid.
It’s a wait-and-see game on what percentage of print copy buyers will subscribe digitally instead, he says. What he does know is that the free online consumption of the paper was “unsustainable” – adding that it is so “for any newspaper”.
