Politico introduces paid-for ‘professional’ subscription services to Europe five months after launch

Politico has launched a paid subscriptions for Europe five months after moving to the continent.

The title, which launched a Europe edition in Brussels early this year in collaboration with Axel Springer, said the new service is "mainly based" on the Politico Pro model in the United States, which provides a "real-time policy news service for professionals".

Founded in 2011, this covers "agriculture, campaigns, cybersecurity, defense, education, eHealth, energy, financial services, health care, tax, technology, trade and transportation".

Politico was founded in the US, where it employs 150 editorial staff, in 2007. The title launched in Europe with a website, free weekly print edition and 40 journalists in April this year.

It claims a free print circulation in Europe of 30,000 – with copies distributed across Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, London and Luxembourg – and 1m unique website users a month.

A Politico Pro subscription includes early morning newsletters, “customisable news alerts pushed via email throughout the day” and in-depth online articles “with analysis and forward-looking insight”. Subscribers receive the weekly newsletter, Brussels Influence, and priority access to its “news-making events in Europe”.

The cost of subscriptions “are based on the subscriber organization’s number of users and number of policy areas”, with the base rate starting at five users for one policy area.

Politico is not disclosing the prices of its Pro subscription services because this varies by number of users in organisations and the number of areas they subscribe to. In the US subscribers pay between $10,000 (£6,567.20)and $300,000 (£197,001.08) for different arrangements.

Shéhérazade Semsar-de Boisséson, managing director of the Politico joint venture, said: “The launch of POLITICO Pro paid subscriptions is an exciting next step for our expansion in Europe, and one that demonstrates a commitment from POLITICO and Axel Springer to build a sustainable, scalable and profitable model for high-quality, high-impact journalism in Europe."

Dari Gessner, executive director of POLITICO Pro Services, said: “Our team has seen significant interest for Pro from hundreds of government institutions, professional service firms, multinational corporations, trade associations and NGOs who want someone to cut through the noise of EU policy news, tell them what really matters and tell them first”.

Ralph Büchi, president Axel Springer International, said: “The launch of POLITICO Europe’s paid subscription offerings constitutes another major step in the expansion of Axel Springer’s paid journalistic offerings. We see that our readers are willing to pay when they get a profound add-on value."

In Europe, Politico's main website is free to access, its print edition costs €199 (£130.70) a year to subscribe to, its Brussels Infleunce newsletter €349 (£229.22) and both cost €399 (£262.07).