Kentucky Standard website moving to a subscription-based service
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Friday, March 18, 2011, 7 p.m. – Online visitors to The Kentucky Standard’s website will soon be asked to pay to continue to have full access.
The newspaper announced earlier this week that it was moving to a hybrid, three-tiered subscription model for its news website. The move is part of a companywide shift to require online visitors pay for the content they read.
The three tiers include:
FULL ACCESS. Individuals who are subscribers to the print edition will have free access to the website. To enable their access, print subscribers need only register. Access to the site continues as long as the reader’s subscription is current.
New subscribers will also have full access to the website. The newspaper offers visitors the option of subscribing to the newspaper print edition and website for one month ($4.86); six months ($33.39), or one year ($58.30).
In addition to a print-plus-online subscription, the newspaper also offers a web-only subscription. The online-only subscriptions feature the same rates as the print-plus-online subscriptions for one month, six month and one year subs.
LIMITED ACCESS. Readers who register for a limited access account will have their access to content restricted to headlines, slideshows and multimedia, weather, classifieds, calendar listings, advertising and website links. They will also have full access to read and post comments in the website’s forums and blogs, nominate a Pet of the Week and submit calendar entries.
NON-SUBSCRIBER. Readers who do not register will have access to the same content as the limited access, but without the ability to post comments in forums, blogs, submit nominations for Pet of the Week or submit calendar items.
In an interview Friday afternoon, Standard publisher Jamie Sizemore said that breaking news and e-mail alerts will remain free to all users of the site.
Sizemore, president of the Kentucky Press Association, said the move to a subscription model has attracted the attention of other Kentucky newspapers. The Standard is among the last group of Landmark Community Newspapers, LLC. (LCNI) community newspapers to make the move.
“We’re really pleased to be able to offer three levels of access,” Sizemore said. “The response the other (LCNI) papers have received from readers has been overwhelming positive.”
The move to a subscription model isn’t unique to Central Kentucky; Sizemore pointed out that the New York Times will be moving to metered access plan for its website later this month, and others nationwide are either moving to a subscription model or considering it.
In Kentucky the move to a subscription-based model isn’t new, either. The Paducah Sun, owned by the family-run Paxton Media Group, has long charged online visitors for complete access to its website. Like the Kentucky Standard’s model, Paducah Sun print subscribers have full access to the website at no extra charge. The main difference is that the Sun charges less for online-only website access; a subscription to the Sun website is roughly one-third the cost of a print subscription.
Producing original content is an expensive undertaking, and the move to a subscription model acknowledges that fact, Sizemore said. The entire Kentucky Standard is now published online, and that product is just as valuable as the printed version, she said.
Click here to read Lisa Tolliver’s story about the newspaper’s move to a subscription-based site.
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