Haymarket is start putting its network of media titles behind online paywalls from July .
The move will affect the website Brand Republic and the other titles in the group: PR Week, Marketing, Campaign and Media Week. According to Haymarket, together the titles attract some 700,000 unique users a month.
Haymarket is to adopt a hybrid strategy, similar to that used by the FT, whereby readers can access a number of stories per month for free before being asked to subscribe. Job adverts and blog posts will remain free.
Group editor Danny Rogers said: ‘While we remain committed to a multi-channel strategy, including producing strong print products, over recent years we’ve seen a dramatic shift in readership to online and the new model reflects that shift.
‘This move will allow us to invest in the journalism and product development to maintain our leadership position in the digital age and deliver improved services to our readers. It is also a big step on the path to establishing our reputation as the ‘BBC of Brands’ – an unrivalled and indispensable resource for all marketing and communications professionals.”
The new strategy will be rolled out from July.
The price is expected to be £155 for print-only per title or £155 for online-only. The combined annual price is expected to be £199 per year (plus VAT).
In November 2009 Haymarket announced the closure of the print edition of Media Week with the axing of 18 out of 58 editorial jobs across the media group as monthly title Revolution went quarterly and the websites Marketing Direct and Promotions and Incentives were merged into Brand Republic.
The Haymarket paywall strategy is similar to that adopted by Emap which began putting all its business to business websites behind online paywalls at the end of 2009. Emap still allows limited free online access via search engines to the websites of titles such as Broadcast, Construction News and Retail Week.
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