Boston Globe to create subscription Web site; current site will remain free but more limited

Boston Globe to create separate, paid Web site

BOSTON — The Boston Globe will create a new, paid subscription Web site next year and limit the content on its free site, Boston.com.

The newspaper announced its two-pronged digital strategy on Thursday. The Globe, which is owned by the New York Times Co., survived a financial crisis last year and had been examining ways to increase revenue from its online content.

The new subscription Web site, BostonGlobe.com, will be launched in the second half of 2011 and will include all news and feature stories published in the daily and Sunday editions of the newspaper.

Boston.com will remain free and still include local news and classified advertising, but access to full stories, features, commentary and other content will be limited.

In a statement, publisher Christopher Mayer said the two sites will allow the company to target two different categories of users: those who want breaking news and things to do, and those who access to the full paper.

Access to BostonGlobe.com will be included in a subscription to the print edition, but the newspaper had not yet determined what the fee structure would be and will spend the next nine months or so working out details of the two sites, Globe spokesman Robert Powers said.

In addition to the full content of the print edition, the paid site will also include breaking news and updates, along with video.

“We will start with all of the material from the Globe, but it will be enhanced,” said Powers.

As print advertising revenues have declined, U.S. newspapers have been wrestling with ways to set up “pay walls” for online content. Most of them have left their websites free for fear of driving away traffic and the advertising dollars that come with it, while others allow users a certain number of free clicks before charging for additional views. Creating separate sites for free and paid content on separate sites is an unusual way to tackle the issue.

“What (the Boston Globe) is doing is deciding they have value in one place and a different kind of value in another place,” said Greg Harmon, chief executive of Belden Interactive, a firm that consults with publishers on digital strategies.

Times Co. threatened to shutdown the Globe last year before unionized workers agreed to concessions to save the newspaper about $20 million a year. The Times later shopped the Globe to possible buyers before taking it off the market last October, saying that its finances had stabilized.

Among the top 25 biggest U.S. newspapers by circulation, only The Wall Street Journal and Long Island’s Newsday charge readers to view articles on the Web.

The Journal has always charged for full online access to its site and now has more than 400,000 digital-only subscribers.

Newsday started charging for Web access only last year but kept its site free for anyone who subscribes to the cable TV service of its owner, Cablevision Systems Corp., or gets the printed newspaper. Cablevision says that includes about 75 percent of Long Island households, limiting the number of potential paying subscribers.

The New York Times is planning to limit the number of online articles readers can access without paying beginning early next year.

AP Business Writer Andrew Vanacore contributed to this report.