Online strategy for the Financial Times

Rob Grimshaw of the Financial Times discussed the newspaper’s online strategy at a recent conference and emphasized the need to pay for content access, writes Laura Oliver at journalism.co.uk.

Oliver writes, “‘There seems to be a pervading view that there must be purity in business models on the web. That it must be all paid for, or all free and advertising driven. If we want to move forward on the internet we need to find a way to do the two things together,’ said Grimshaw.

“‘There’s a lot of innovation to come on the web, in particular how we price our audiences and our content. The right for us to charge for our content is absolutely key.’

“Although the new FT access model has led to a higher number of free registered users than paying subscribers, Grimshaw said revenue had been gained from advertising to these non-paying users.”

Read more here.