dailyregister.com website begins subscription plan for some content
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Beginning Wednesday, The Daily Register and the Eldorado Daily Journal will begin charging to view some content on their website, dailyregister.com.
The move comes nearly 15 years after the newspaper's website launched. It reflects the growth of the newspaper's digital offerings over the years.
"Under the method we will be using, very few of our users see an effect," Publisher George Wilson said.
"Those who are heavy users of the site will discover the cost to be a minor one. In the end, we feel, all will be winners. Through use of site metering, we will be better able to pinpoint the needs of our readers and deliver material to them."
The Daily Register and the Eldorado Daily Journal are owned by Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse Media Inc. The publication is one of the first owned by the company to adopt a subscription model for its website.
"The Daily Register and the Eldorado Daily Journal offer a more robust online news report than ever before, as do all of our community newspapers," said Brad Dennison, GateHouse Media Vice President of News and Interactive. "We are serious about creating a model that sustains the important service and journalism we provide our communities, and we think this is a very fair way to begin to accomplish that."
Visitors to dailyregister.com will get unlimited access to the website's homepage, breaking news, obituaries, weather, blogs and multimedia offerings. Most other articles on the website, including general local news, entertainment, lifestyle, and in-depth sports stories, will fall into a paid category.
After reading 20 pay-category articles, readers will be asked to pay a monthly subscription to gain unlimited access for the site.
Occasional visitors to the website probably won't know the subscription system exists. Heavier users who visit the website several times a day and want all the content would find themselves having to pay for full access.
The Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal home delivery subscribers will be able to get full access to the website for $1.50 a month.
Others can get full access to dailyregister.com for $4.95 a month. Subscribers who pay for 12 months in advance can sign up for a reduced price of $14.95 a year. Payment will be with a credit card through a secure connection provided by The Daily Register and the Eldorado Daily Journal partner, Press+.
Offering free access helped build the website into the dominant online provider of local news, but as the site has grown, so have the costs needed to maintain and grow it.
Other newspapers nationwide have announced they are adopting a subscription system for their websites in the near future, including The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News. Some newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, have charged online readers a subscription fee for years.