Singapore: daily to go the way of the Wall Street Journal, charging for online content

Singapore's The Strait's Times is poised to charge readers for access to the articles published on their website, according to The Industry Standard. A few months ago, the paper began requiring registration for use of its website and has decided to take the next step, joining the rare amount of dailies around the world that do the same, such as Hong Kong's South China Morning Post and the Wall Street Journal. An annual subscription will cost S$120 whereas the printed newspaper costs S$276 for a year. The paper plans to improve the content of its website once it starts charging for it in March, posting business reports 12 hours earlier and expanding the archive from 3 to 7 days. "We believe that we have a good and valuable product that users will want to pay for," explained the newspapers. "It's also not a tenable business model to charge for the print edition of the newspaper and not for its online edition." In related news, Online Journalism Review summarizes Adam L. Penenberg of New York University who feels that the Wall Street Journal is losing its "long-term relevancy" by charging for its content. Young readers, said Penenberg, are not paying for online news, and thus, will more than likely never pick up the habit of reading the Journal.

Sources: The Industry Standard, Online Journalism Review