Mail Online has confirmed it will make up to 15 articles per day paid-for under a new subscription service from the end of January.
The plan was first revealed last week but has now been officially announced by the publisher.
It will see Mail+, previously the name of the digital edition product for the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers, become the overall brand for the subscription service.
Mail Online publishes around 1,500 stories every day and under the new product around ten to 15 daily will be subscription-only, as indicated by a small Mail+ logo.
The publisher said these stories will “focus on the subjects the Mail is famous for – from agenda-setting investigations to major royal and showbiz exclusives, from expert health, money and travel advice to hard-hitting opinions from an unrivalled line-up of columnists”.
Some will appear in the printed newspaper but many will not. The new product only applies to the UK, with Mail Online remaining completely free to readers in the rest of the world.
Mail Online editor and publisher Danny Groom said the subscription service would offer “dedicated readers a new way to get even more from the Mail”.
With Mail Online’s UK audience up by 17% year-on-year in October to 24.9 million people, Groom added that “now feels like the right time to be offering our loyal and engaged audience more of what they love”.
Mail Newspapers editor Ted Verity added: “Everyone knows that the very best high-quality journalism of the kind the Mail is famous for costs money to produce and this will allow us to give our readers even more of it – alongside hundreds and hundreds of great articles that will remain available to read for free.
“We are also investing in developing new podcasts and massively expanding our video content, so this is an incredibly exciting time for the Mail.” DMG Media hired audio industry veteran Jamie East as its head of podcasts earlier this year to expand in that area.
The new Mail Online product will have a “small monthly subscription fee”, the publisher said, but the price has not yet been revealed.
Existing subscribers to Mail+ Editions, who pay to get the digital replicas of the printed newspapers on phones, tablets and laptops, will automatically have the new paid-for articles on Mail Online included in their subscription. Mail+ Editions currently costs £12.99 per month after a three-month trial offer.
As well as the digital editions, Mail+ Editions includes a 5pm news update each day, interactive puzzles, and offers and rewards.
The Mail currently has about 160,000 subscribers, with 90,000 in digital. Seven-day Mail print subscribers also get access to Mail+ Editions.
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