Categories: OLD Media Moves

FT to use PayPal for payments

Robert Andrews of PaidContent.org writes Tuesday that the Financial Times plans to use only pay service PayPal to charge for daily and weekly access to the business newspaper’s content on the Web.

Andrews writes, “Today, FT CEO John Ridding said the day pass and a weekly pass will be powered by PayPal and will begin in the next few months. The move is different from FT.com’s regular annual subscription, which appears as a direct payment.

“None of this is quite the ‘micropayment’ model mooted previously. That term usually refers to a per-article fee. ‘Micropayments simply isn’t going to work if you go to an article and you spend quarter of an hour filling out forms and ticking boxes,’ Ridding told the FT’‘s Digital Media & Broadcasting conference in London.

“‘Done right, micropayments can support a subscription model.  If you get the pricing right for the micropayments, you can actually support an annual subscription.'”

Read more here.

View Comments

  • Ridding has it half right, that people won't fill out long forms just to view an article for $1.95.

    The other half is that he and the media industry need to marshall forces to work with Dell, Lenovo, HP and Apple to install tap-and-go systems on personal computers. People will tap credit cards against the keyboard, just like they do with subway passes or Fast-Lane transponders. That is the key to small-scale e-commerce.

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