The newspaper’s existing site, Boston.com, will remain free and will offer breaking news, blogs, photo galleries, sports coverage, and a limited selection of stories from the paper.
Other major newspapers have also started to charge for online content as readers and advertisers continue migrating to the Internet, cutting into the print revenue that pays for a large percentage of newsgathering operations. Particularly notable has been The New York Times, which requires a subscription to gain access to more than 20 stories per month.
The strategy at the Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Co., is unique because the paper has decided to split its news brands - Boston.com and The Boston Globe - into two distinct websites.
“We’ve never had The Boston Globe have its own front door in the digital space,’’ said Globe publisher Christopher M. Mayer. “It’s always been integrated with Boston.com. This was an opportunity to build something brand-new and to have it front and center and really do justice to the brand promise The Boston Globe offers to its readers.’’
The Globe launched Boston.com in 1995, making it among the first US newspapers to launch a website, as it sought to offer news and information in a region with a high concentration of tech-savvy readers. Boston.com today has 6.2 million unique monthly visitors, making it by far the largest media site in New England and among the most visited newspaper sites in the nation.
BostonGlobe.com represents an effort to markedly improve the online reading experience by creating a digital product tailored to consumer tastes being shaped by iPads and smartphones, which make information easily accessible anywhere.
Globe executives said they divided the company’s Web presence to cater to different groups of readers.
Boston.com is envisioned as being attractive to readers who consume news more quickly and casually, want access to a broad array of information and services, and might be unwilling to pay.
