{"id":38539,"date":"2013-05-24T07:04:25","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T05:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=38539"},"modified":"2013-05-24T08:34:58","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T06:34:58","slug":"if-people-dont-subscribe-its-no-loss-business-day-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/38539\/if-people-dont-subscribe-its-no-loss-business-day-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"If people don\u2019t subscribe it\u2019s no loss: Business Day chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Business Day<\/a> publisher and editor-in-chief, Peter Bruce<\/a> says he doesn\u2019t care how many people subscribe to the newspaper\u2019s online edition, which went behind a paywall earlier this month (May).<\/p>\n

Bruce was speaking on SummitTV\u2019s Tech on Tap show.\u00a0Summit is owned by the African Business Channel (ABC), the radio and TV wing of BDFM Media<\/a>, publisher of Business Day and the Financial Mail.<\/p>\n

Business Day is charging readers R14.50 a day for a digital and print edition of the business title, which translates to an annual (12 months) subscription fee of R5,292.<\/p>\n

Paywall pioneer, The New York Times, bills per week, charging $3.75 for unlimited access to NYTimes.com and the NYTimes smartphone app. That amounts to $15 dollars per month, and $180 annually – or R1,727, even with the rand taking its current beating against the greenback.<\/p>\n

All Digital Access comes in at $8.75 per week, or $35 per month, and $420 annually (R4,029).<\/p>\n

The New York Times Company recently announced that paid digital subscribers to The Times and The International Herald Tribune had grown to 676,000 by the end of March.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times charges $8.59 per week, $34.36 per month, and $412.32 per year (R3,956)\u00a0for its premium package.<\/p>\n

The group also has a standard offer of $4.69 per week which provides full digital access, online, mobile and apps.<\/p>\n

SA market<\/strong><\/p>\n

When posed with the question of whether the South African market was big enough to sustain a paywall model, Bruce said that Business Day\u2019s online edition received two kinds of traffic, the in-and-out traffic through Google, and overseas readers which, account for 20%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people aren\u2019t consuming more than 15 stories per month. With our paywall, once you have registered you get those 15 stories for free,\u201d Bruce said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere designed to try to capture those people who want more out of the internet, and we will charge them a subscription for more than 15, otherwise we will see you again next month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The editor-in-chief said that within the first week of going behind a paywall, BusinessDay has garnered \u201cabout 100 digital subscriptions\u201d which he said was \u201cway more than I imagined\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said that already amounted to over R200,000 in revenue the group would not have otherwise had.<\/p>\n

What if?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contemplating the possibility that people don\u2019t subscribe to the digital version of Business Day, Bruce said: \u201cThat\u2019s fine. Here\u2019s the thing, let\u2019s say no-one subscribes, it\u2019s no loss to me whatsoever.”<\/p>\n

“Basically it means nothing is for free, that\u2019s all\u2026that\u2019s my bottom line. I don\u2019t care how many people subscribe. It\u2019s gratifying that so many have, but as long as I am not giving away content for free, I\u2019m a happy man.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that over the past 10 days or so, he\u2019s found it difficult to find Business Day in his local Spar, an indication, he believes, that the paywall model is working.<\/p>\n