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Iconic weekly politics and culture magazine New Statesman is following the lead of a number of prominent publishers by putting up a metered paywall.
Later this March, readers will be required to register with an email address after hitting a limit of three articles a week. After five articles a week, they’ll be asked to subscribe for an annual fee of £144 ($198). Subscribers will also get access to the digital version of the print magazine, what it’s calling NS Instant, two days before it hits the newsstand.
The publisher is also introducing new products for subscribers: a new weekly podcast; a weekly email newsletter; and access to themed monthly events.
The New Statesman publishes around 10 online-only articles a day, plus articles that have previously appeared in print.
“We want our journalism to be read as widely as possible,” Helen Lewis, deputy editor at the New Statesman told Digiday. “You cannot fund our level of quality journalism through (just) a display ad model.” Although, tellingly, the publisher said it has reported digital ad revenue growth of 30 percent year-over-year.