Times and Sunday Times unveil membership schemes

By Salamander Davoudi at the FT

News International has unveiled a new model for The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers with the launch of a membership scheme that gives readers access to exclusive events and special offers in return for a £50 annual fee.

The initiative, called Times+, is a strategic shift for News International, the publisher of both papers, which is seeking new ways to charge its readers amid weak advertising markets and declines in print circulation.

The move will be seen as a precursor to the company’s stated intent to charge for online content. Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp, the papers’ ultimate parent company, said in May that he could start charging in his newspapers, which also includes The Sun, within the year.

”Times+ gives us the opportunity to redefine further our relationship with our readers and to reward their loyalty,” Katie Vanneck-Smith, managing director of News International’s Customer Direct division, said on Monday.

”We are moving away from the traditional model of volume in favour of developing more direct relationships with our customers based on their interests and passions.”

In an attempt to generate new revenue streams, The Times + website will offer a range of special offers including two-for-one travel on the Heathrow Express train service.

Membership is £50 a year, but Times+ will be free for the more than 150,000 people who subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times.

The scheme follows on from the papers’ arts and entertainment programme, called Culture+, which now has more than 90,000 members a year after launching.

Culture+, which is free to subscribers and has not charged an additional membership fee, is to become part of the Times+ offering as one of two extra packages along with Travel+.

More packs are expected to be added over the next 12 months and could include Style or Food sections.

Times+ members can receive a free Sky+HD box if they take out a premium subscription with either sport or movies to Sky, whose parent BSkyB is 39 per cent owned by News Corp.

John Witherow, editor of The Sunday Times, said: “The success of Culture+ has shown us that readers trust us to deliver what they want.”

“Our greatest asset is our content. Times+ enables us to offer readers the chance to get even more out of the sections of the paper that they most value.”

The Guardian is looking at similar initiatives.