More European newspapers put up paywalls Germany's Berliner Morgenpost and Hamburger Abendblatt follow France's Le Figaro in charging for content
More European newspapers<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newspapers> are joining the paid content club: Axel Springer has put up online paywalls<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/paywalls> for two of its German newspapers, the Berliner Morgenpost and the Hamburger Abendblatt. This follows reports of French paper Le Figaro readying a paywall this month<http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-frances-le-fig-and-lexpress-planning-paywalls-too/>, and ahead of a planned paywall from Times Online, expected this spring<http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-murdoch-rusbridgers-paywall-warning-sounds-like-b.s.-to-me/>. Access to all content on morgenpost.de now costs €4.95 (£4.32/$6.79) a month. A premium subscription to abendblatt.de costs €7.95 (£6.93/$10.90) a month. Abendblatt.de has a mixture of free and premium content: it appears it charges extra for content specific to the Hamburg region, while making national news free. Subscriptions for both are renewed on a monthly basis. (Release<http://ecommerce.ulitzer.com/node/1274170> via Ulitzer.) Axel Springer has already seen some success in paid-content models for its papers. In December 2009, it launched paid-for iPhone apps<http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-axel-springer-kicking-off-news-paywall-with-iphone-apps/> for two of its other German newspapers, the tabloid Bild and Die Welt. Clickandbuy, which provides the charging mechanism for these apps as well as the new online paywalls, says that Bild is now ranked first and Die Welt ninth in Germany's app store. It will be worth watching whether – and how – this move will link up with another of Springer's plans, for third-party micropayments. In December, Springer's head of public affairs, Christoph Keese, said that Springer wanted to work with Google and other search engines to develop a direct payment system<http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-axel-springer-wants-newspaper-google-paid-content-partnership/>, to charge people for individual articles when they clicked on Google's search results. No news yet on whether that idea will fly. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/feb/08/european-newspapers-paywalls/print ________________________________ José Antonio López GLOBOMEDIA Dpto. Comunicación-Documentación jalo...@globomedia.es<mailto:jalo...@globomedia.es> ---------------------------------------------------- Los artículos de IWETEL son distribuidos gracias al apoyo y colaboración técnica de RedIRIS - Red Académica española - (http://www.rediris.es) ----------------------------------------------------
