Northern Ireland’s most successful daily newspaper has introduced a metered paywall after revamping its (previously poor) website.
The Belfast-based Irish News is offering its readers a range of subscription deals, starting from £4.49 a week up to £249 a year for a combined digital and print service.
The website remains free until 28 July. After that, users will be able to read 10 articles for free before being required to pay for access.
It follows a relaunch of the paper’s website, which had long needed attention. As a regular visitor to the site, I found it frustrating to use.
I tried out the search function, which worked much better than before (it couldn’t possibly be worse), but there remains a small glitch that will, doubtless, be sorted out.
Overall, the site looks good, offers much more than it did previously was easy to navigate. As the paper’s managing director, Dominic Fitzpatrick, told HoldTheFrontPage: “Keeping up with the ever-evolving digital world is the key to a successful business.”
But the Irish News’s main revenue, by far, comes from its newsprint version, which has, despite the market decline, performed better than its two main Northern Ireland rivals, the Belfast Telegraph and the Newsletter.
If bulks are removed from the Bel Tel’s total, the Irish News tops the chart by selling more at full cover price. Twenty or so years ago, the Telegraph outsold the News by a factor of 3 to 1.
