Boston Globe Paywall Strategy: Run Two Sites, One Subscription-Only

This week The Boston Globe launched BostonGlobe.com as an addition to its current site Boston.com. This is all part of the newspaper’s new online

This week The Boston Globe launched BostonGlobe.com as an addition to its current site Boston.com. This is all part of the newspaper’s new online paywall strategy: BostonGlobe.com will start charging $3.99 per week in October for a digital susbcription (free for print newspaper subscribers) and feature content that runs in the newspaper and other hard journalism. Boston.com will remain free, supported by advertising, and feature event listings and e-commerce.“What we noticed was that there were really two audiences going to Boston.com,” publisher Chris Mayer told TheWrap.com. “One type of reader was looking for general news and information, breaking news, anything that was happening, things to do and e-commerce – what you’d use a community portal for.”This interesting split strategy may soon serve as a model for other newspapers who want to serve two very different types of audiences – one that is willing to pay for timely hard news and the other that is more casual and looking more for lighter local fare like events and shopping.

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