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German newspapers join paywall trend

Mon Feb 8 2010, 17:32 PM UTC

Publishing company Axel Springer is erecting online paywalls for two of its German newspapers, the Hamburger Abendblatt and Berliner Morgenpost. The news comes as reports emerge that France's Le Figaro will implement a paywall this month. In the UK, Times Online is preparing to launch its paywall this spring.

Axel Springer has already experimented with charging for online newspaper content. It launched successful paid-for iPhone apps for Die Welt and its Bild tabloid. The latter is currently ranked first and the former is ninth in Germany's app store rankings. The figures were released by ClickandBuy, the mechanism which runs Springer's apps and online paywalls.

Springer head of public affairs Christopher Keese says the company wants to work with Google and other search engines to develop a direct payment system. Such a system will charge people to read an individual article when they click on a search result.

The subscriptions for Springer's new paywalls will be renewed on a monthly basis. Access to everything on morgenpost.de will cost EUR4.95 (USD6.79) a month. Abendblatt.de has a mixture of free and premium content. It seems content specific to Hamburg is being charged while national news is free. The premium subscription is priced at EUR7.95 (USD10.90) a month.