‘Boston Globe’ Charges for New Digital Version

NYT Co’s Boston Globe has launched a new online paid product. The newspaper has unveiled a digital version of the newspaper, called GlobeReader, allows readers to access the newspaper online or vie e-readers.

The new product is available for $4.98 per week, though subscribers to the print version of the paper get GlobeReader for free, writes MediaPost.

The NYT Co partnered with Amazon on development of its latest Kindle readers. The company’s third quarter revenue fell 16.9% from Q3 08, to $570.6 million. Total revenue at the New England Media Group, which publishes the Boston Globe, fell 12.6%. NYT Co was considering selling the Boston Globe, but the paper managed to improve its finances enough that, when the company failed to receive attractive enough bids, it decided to scrap its plans to sell.

Like the Boston Globe, many newspapers are launching - or are considering launching - online paid products to augment sliding ad revenue, pick up new subscribers, or engage existing readers in ways that will encourage them to remain loyal.

Cablevision’s Newsday is one that recently erected a pay wall on its website. The newspaper is now charging $5 a week for access and is providing new and expanded features such as a zip code driven news feature that allows users to receive news and information specific to their hometown. The company’s main hope is that the subscription web service will help boost newspaper subscriptions and subscriptions to its internet access service.

However, like all papers that charge for online content, the newspaper risks losing readers who will seek out find free news elsewhere.

Despite the difficulties of convincing readers to pay for content they have grown accustomed to being able to access for free online, more than half of newspaper publishers (51%) in a recent survey indicated they believe they can successfully charge for content; 49% either weren’t sure or believe paying for content will not work.

Rupert Murdoch is leading the charge to stop giving away newspaper content for free. Not only does he plan to charge a fee for access to all of News Corp’s news sites (ideally, he says, by the middle of 2010, though that date may be too optimistic), but he also plans to block News Corp content from being indexed by Google.

The move will certainly significantly decrease by a large margin the amount of traffic that goes to News Corp.‘s news sites, but Jonathan Miller, News Corp’s chief digital officer, says the company will survive both economically and audience-wise without Google driving traffic to its sites.

MediaNews Group is another newspaper company that has said it will soon begin charging for content, and The New York Times is also said to be mulling a paid online model.