Sun website to ditch its paywall
31 Oct 2015
Making a major U-turn over its paywall, The Sun newspaper announced that it will be scrapped in an effort to better compete with rivals.
The majority of the content on The Sun website would be free from 30 November as the News UK publisher moved into the free ad market where rival publications such as Mail Online had found a viable financial alternative to charging monthly subscriptions.
With The Sun entering the 'freemium' ad segment, competition among national newspapers was set to increase as they looked to revenue from digital media with print sales continuing to fall.
News UK chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, made the announcement to staff last morning about the U-turn, which might signal the end of the paywall strategy.
In an email to staff Brooks said she planned to expand The Sun's audience by making it ''predominantly free in the digital world''. The move was said to have been influenced by The Sun's platform partnerships with Apple News and its desire to increasingly have its articles shared on Facebook Instant Articles.
Brook's email added in her email that the company was ''in a strong position thanks to the many learnings we bring from the paid-for era'' and said that the ''recent acquisition of Unruly, and our ongoing collaboration with colleagues at Storyful, further bolsters our position and will play a big role in how we supercharge our digital advertising capabilities.''
The Sun had recruited Keith Poole, the managing editor of Mail Online in the US, as digital editor to strengthen its team as it transitions to a free site.
In July 2013, The Sun counted over 30 million monthly unique users, the last officially audited figures before the Sun.co.uk switched to its paid subscriber model.
