FT.com Takes Free Articles Away From Unregistered Users, Except Via Search

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FT.com Takes Free Articles Away From Unregistered Users, Except Via Search

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Now the Financial Times is getting really bullish about its web access model. In another tweak, it’s now ensuring that no free articles are on offer to non-registered users.

In 2007, the site introduced this access model to give five free articles a month to casual readers, and 25 to free-registered users, as incentives to subscribe. But, watching its paying customers grow since then, it reduced the five free articles to one a month, and now to none.

The free articles for free-registered readers has also been reduced to 10 a month. But unregistered readers who come via Google (NSDQ: GOOG), will still get five free articles, under its adoption of Google’s modified First-Click-Free scheme.

FT.com wants readers to register for free because it gives the paper valuable demographic data with which to target advertisers’ ads and special offers for its own subscription package. It now has 1.9 million users with free accounts, which has helped it grow to 121,000 paying subscribers.

While it’s closing stories off to directly-visiting users, with First-Click-Free it’s leaving the door ajar to search visitors, however.

Analysing reader data is key to site publisher Rob Grimshaw, who told me recently he wants to be as flexible as possible with pricing options for the subscription, which costs up to £364 a year. FT.com is set to trial day and week payments via PayPal..

“We’re very keen to offer the maximum range of payment platforms,” Grimshaw said. “At moment, it’s limited; you can only pay by credit card.

“We’ve moved with PayPal first because it’s a great transaction platform and a great user experience. It’s the one which has the most potential to open up new markets for us. But there’s no reason we wouldn’t move on to other options as well. We want to be in a situation where our users can pay with their credit card, via direct debit, through their mobile, with their Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) account, PayPal, their Google account - there’s no down side to offering the maximum number of options.”

Micropayments, also on FT’s agenda, are “more complicated from an engineering perspective” but, asked if Google Checkout could work as a platform (since many readers of merely individual articles come via search), Grimshaw said: “We’d be delighted if Google would help us out with some of those things.”

Robert Andrews

@robertandrews Mar 19, 2010 1:01 PM ET

Posted In: Companies, Pearson, Financial Times, FT.com

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mukesh

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Amit

Hi Nikhil,
It may seem to all that Yahoo is not used by anyone since Google launch but a better judge is Alexa.com, which tells ranking of different sites worldwide. Yahoo is world wide No 1, Google comes 2nd and Orkut 3rd (Backed by Brazil).

Shahnawaz Sayyad

Nikhil, thats seriously for you to answer…as far as I am concerned these guys know wht they are doing (though of course, they too have their ups and downs ).

Nikhil Pahwa

Yahoo's doing well? Where did that come from…sure, ad revenues tripled last year, but are they getting advertisements because people use their site, or because advertisers don't know better?

nikil kanchan

yahoo is really doin wel and i thk d new portal is gr8….keep it up yahoo i thk ul match up wit google pretty soon…

Shahnawaz Sayyad

Yahoo city is the best product arnd. I must also add that Yahoo is doing a wonderful job on many front…wonder whts happnd to MSN, they seem to be lagging behind. especially their ad model.