So what all do you have to do to read a Financial Chronicle news report online? First, go to http://www.mydigitalfc.com, click on the story in the e-paper, register for the e-paper, open the confirmation mail, verify your email address, and finally click on the story to read it. Far too many steps are required for accessing the content, and I hope this is a stop-gap measure.

Compare this with what Mail Today, the India Today - Daily Mail (LSE: DMGT) JV has done: though they’ve also only got an e-paper, they’ve ensured that their content remains accessible - there’s no registration required, and you can read stories by clicking on the e-paper. Furthermore, they’ve displayed most viewed articles to help content discovery.

It’s a tradeoff for FC - having readers register to read allows them to create a database of users, but at the same time, FC might lose out on readers who would switch to other sites like Business Standard, Economic Times, or even UTVi and Moneycontrol for their business news. Oddly enough, I just checked and financialchronicle.in and financialchronicle.co.in are still available.