The Financial Times is to introduce new payment options for reading stories on FT.com, including accepting Paypal payments, as the publisher looks to bolster its successful online subscription model. John Ridding told the FT’s Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference in central London on Tuesday that the FT would begin trialling eBay’s PayPal, for daily or weekly access to FT.com.
04/03/2010
Currently, the FT.com only charges for annual subscriptions. The new move would see the company accept micro-payments via PayPal for individual articles.
The FT is considering charging £2 for a day’s access to the site, matching the UK cover price of the daily newspaper.
”There has been far too much talking and not enough doing” about whether people will pay for news, said Mr Ridding.
He said that signing up for new payment services must be a ”frictionless, seamless process” if publishers are to avoid ”subscription fatigue” from too many individual paywalls.
