Trinity Mirror has launched two paywalled websites for fans of Liverpool and Middlesbrough football clubs, using existing staff to create the additional content.
Anfield Extra will cost £4.99 per month and will be produced by the Liverpool Echo sports desk.
Gazette Boro Premium will charge readers £3.99 per month with content created, similarly, by the sports team at the Gazette in Middlesbrough.
Subscribers will be able to view “exclusive content” including “in depth analysis, additional comment, guides and opinion from well known names and additional podcasts and video”, Trinity Mirror has said.
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They can also access competitions and invitations to “unique subscriber only live events”.
The publisher has said the premium content will be produced in addition to the regular output on both newspapers, but said that currently no new staff would be recruited on either desk.
“This offering will have no impact on the content already provided for free on our sites – this is additional premium content. It will also be a totally advert-free experience,” said Trinity Mirror.
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A spokesperson told Press Gazette: “Nothing is going behind a paywall that already exists [in the papers].”
Echo editor Alastair Machray said: “The key for us is to ensure it is fresh, new, premium content. We have no intention of charging for anything we already offer our huge online audience.”
Gazette editor Chris Styles added: “The Gazette has been around since 1869 and has been with the Boro throughout the club’s proud history.
“Our writers are at every game – and, like the fans, live and breathe all things Boro. They are seen as a trusted source of information and central to the conversation around the club.
“We are taking the comprehensive coverage we already provide a stage further and our new service will give fans the inside track on what is going on at the club and extra daily exclusive content for a monthly price of a couple of pre-match drinks.”
The two brands are not affiliated with either club.
Last month, Liverpool FC moved to ban journalists from The Sun from covering match reports or attending press conferences over the paper’s past coverage of the Hillsborough disaster.
The decision was apparently made following pressure from protest group “Total Eclipse of the S*n”.
Picture: Reuters / Phil Noble Livepic
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