Next Monday The Irish Times is implementing a metered subscription offering, becoming the first Irish paper ensconced behind a paywall since the paper abandoned its last version in 2001.

Visitors to the website will be able to browse stories on IrishTimes.com but will be limited to viewing only 10 articles per month. It is akin to the metered paywall the New York Times implemented in 2011 that’s proven somewhat successful in curbing a once-precipitous decline. Research by technology company Newscycle has shown that companies with metered paywalls have higher retention rates than those using hard paywalls.

The digital subscriptions will come with four options:

• The “standard digital” option costs12 Euro a month ($13.68), for full access to the paper and archives dating back to 1859 on up to three devices.
• The “premium digital” option costs16 Euro ($18.24) a month for everything in the standard package but it also includes access to the daily Irish Times Digital Edition ePaper, an electronic copy of the physical newspaper.
• The last two subscription levels combine digital access with home newspaper delivery, one for daily delivery at 50 Euro ($57.00) a month and one offering weekend delivery only at 20 Euro ($22.80) a month.

Liam Kavanagh, managing director of the Irish Times Ltd, told the paper that “There is an increasing acceptance now that digital content needs to be paid for…We need to build our content-led digital revenues, because we don’t think advertising on its own is sufficient to pay for the amount of content that is generated by the Irish Times – by its 180 staff journalists and its contributors – on a day-to-day basis.”

The Irish Times has an existing subscriber base of 20,000, with 13,000 subscribers paying for home delivery of the paper. There are 4,000 subscribers to the ePaper, with the remainder signed up for access to the archives and digital crossword puzzles. Overall the site saw 6.1 million unique visitors and 44.5 million page views in January, but these traffic numbers will likely decline at first as those unwilling to subscribe will look elsewhere for “free” news.

While digital revenue currently accounts for 12.5% of overall revenue, Kavanagh is bullish on the potential of digital’s new focus “at the heart of how we operate.” The hope is that over time the revenue from digital will double and lead to the addition of 20,000 new subscribers within the first year.

Insider Take:

This decision by The Irish Times to implement a metered or “soft” paywall has seemingly come at the right time – it has lost a whopping 42% of its circulation over the past five years, according to industry monitor National Newspapers of Ireland. Other media properties like the New York Times have had some success in stemming the exodus of readership and revenue by introducing a paywall where casual readers are still able to access the news they want, but more voracious consumers must pay. There are currently only two other newspapers in the country that operate behind a paywall and both titles are only published on weekends, so The Irish Times has a clean slate with which to work, and its success or failure either way will serve as an example for other Irish newspapers to follow. We recommend that The Irish Times continue to test offers and packaging to find the right combination of customer satisfaction and revenue growth to navigate out of turbulent waters.