VG will introduce payment in order to read specific articles

VG.Photo Norway Today Media

Declining advertising revenue, leads newspaper VG to test the so-called micro-payments for individual articles in its online edition.

Up to date, over 80,000 of VG’s readers pay for access to the newspaper’s digital product VG +, through various subscriptions. Readers will soon also have the opportunity to pay in order to read individual articles.
– The biggest part of the digital content that VG delivers has been based on a free model that has been financed through advertising. We see now, that this business model is more uncertain, says VG’s commercial director Christian Haneborg to Dagens Næringsliv.
The newspaper is also considering, giving its readers the option to pay, so as to get fewer ads on the front page of VG’s online edition.
– One hypothesis is that a lower ad content may be something, that users might be willing to pay for, either on its own or as part of a larger package, says Haneborg.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today