Freedom of Information campaigner Heather Brooke has labelled The Guardian’s digital-first strategy a ‘fail’– claiming the controversial model is ‘unsustainable”.
Brooke, who had a leading role in exposing the MPs’ expenses scandal, told an audience in Sydney (according to a report in today’s Independent):
I’m very much against what The Guardian is doing and the reason I say that is because originally I was probably a fan, but now I just see it as a fail. It’s an unsustainable model to give away news for free, because news is not free it’s expensive.
It’s expensive both in terms of resources of the journalist’s time and also legal risk, getting sued.
Last week Press Gazette revealed that two years after The Times and Sunday Times went behind paywalls they now claim to have a combined total of 256,740 digital subscribers.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
