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Philadelphia’s newspapers launched subscription sites Monday: Inquirer.com and PhillyDailyNews.com. Philly.com, which will continue to feature content from both papers, will remain free.
The sites are strictly membership-only, Interstate General Media spokesperson Mark Block tells Poynter in an email. Content on those sites is available, he writes, if:
a.) you are a Daily News single copy customer and receive your access code each day in the Daily News for PhillyDailyNews.com
b.) you are a home delivery subscriber to the Daily News (for access to PhillyDailyNews.com) or Inquirer (for access to Inquirer.com)
“The membership websites will further Interstate General Media’s commitment to serving both newspapers’ loyal readers and re-ignite their relationship with the people of Philadelphia,” a story introducing them says. Memberships are available via a “Subscriber Concierge.”
The new sites “reflect the papers’ personalities,” Joel Mathis wrote Friday: PhillyDailyNews.com is “fun to look at”; Inquirer.com “is more business-like, befitting its image as ‘paper of record.'”
Inquirer.com “prompts non-subscribers to subscribe immediately, with pricing options that range from $2.50 per week for Sunday home delivery and digital access, to $7 per week for seven-day home delivery plus digital access,” News & Tech reports. “Digital-only access is priced at $6.44 per week and includes the digital replica edition of The Inquirer.”
Interstate General Media, which owns the papers and Philly.com, announced the pay sites at the end of last year. The two-site strategy echoes the Boston Globe’s.
IGM reportedly threatened to liquidate the papers last year but reached an arrangement with the papers’ Guild that guaranteed a daily paper for the next two years.
Previously: Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News will launch separate paywalled sites
