Citizens are slowly but surely starting to get used to the idea that it is normal to pay to access quality information. the FinancialTimes has just launched a mobile application which gives access to a selection of articles.
With €1.20, you can buy a pain au chocolat — or a chocolatine — in a bakery or… subscribe to the new monthly subscription of the FinancialTimes. The famous British financial daily has just announced the launch of FT Edit, a mobile application which offers readers the opportunity to discover, each day, eight articles selected by the editorial staff. They will allow them tobetter understand today’s world“, without the need for scroller (scroll) for long minutes on the site of the FinancialTimes. FT Edit’s tagline: “time well read“, Where “well read time” in French.
More and more readers want to have access to quality editorial content in just a few clicks. This is all the more obvious among members of Generation Z, these young people born between 1997 and 2010. They do not keep abreast of current events by consulting traditional media, such as the written press and television. They prefer to go to social networks and the Internet, where they “nibble” short decryption formats, designed to be read (and above all seen) on a smartphone.
A discounted subscription
According to Malcolm Moore, editor of FT Edit, the new editorial product of the FinancialTimes is aimed precisely at these ultra-connected readers. “FT Edit is for people who want to read less and understand more. We feature eight in-depth articles from FT every day of the week, and readers can view articles they saved over the weekend. We’ve kept the design as clean and minimalist as possible to encourage concentration and reflection“, he said in a statement.
The ergonomic design of FT Edit is however not the main selling point of this new mobile application, available only on iOS. This is actually its price: £0.99 (€1.20) for the first six months. Beyond this trial period, the monthly subscription will drop to £4.99 (around €5.90). A paltry sum compared to the £35 (approximately €41.30) that readers pay each month to have access to all the articles in the FinancialTimes. The British daily says that this new mobile application is not intended to compete with its website. It is an additional offer intended for the 26 million Internet users who follow the FinancialTimes on social networks.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the New York Times launched a similar smartphone app in 2014. Its name, NYT Now. It was aimed at users who obtain their information mainly on the Internet, like most Americans between the ages of 21 and 29. The application gave them access to a mixture of articles from the daily newspaper and other newspapers, as well as briefings summarizing the daily news at the beginning and end of the day. All for $8 per month (€9.4). Despite this reduced price subscription, the New York Times decided to end this application in September 2016 after having met with little success with its subscribers. The world for its part launched La Matinale, which provides access to a selection of 20 articles partly taken from the newspaper.
$120 million invested in CNN+
If the FinancialTimes is betting on mobile applications to reach a wider audience, CNN is counting on streaming. The all-news channel recently launched CNN+, a subscription-based streaming platform that costs $6 a month (or $60 a year). Viewers can watch eight live broadcasts daily, including 5 Things with Kate Bolduan, Big Picture with Sara Sidner or Reliable Sources Daily. Added to this are weekly programs like Jake Tapper’s book club or Anderson Cooper’s breaking news show. CNN+ subscribers can also access a library of 1,000 hours of programming produced by the group, as well as first episodes of new original series like The Murdochs: Empire of Influence and The Land of the Giants: Titans of Tech.
CNN+ is meant to appeal to a young and connected audience, without neglecting the “super fans” of the streaming news channel. According to the American press, CNN has invested 120 million dollars and recruited more than 400 journalists to carry out this ambitious project. Although it was greeted with skepticism by daily newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Rebecca Kutler, head of programming for CNN+, is more optimistic about the chances of success for this new streaming service. “At CNN+, we have not sought to replicate what [CNN U.S] In fact, we have sought to build a totally unique product for streaming and for an audience accustomed to streaming that we believe will match what subscribers are looking for in this sector.“, she explained to Adweek.
But the competition is tough. Its rival, Fox News, launched its own streaming service in November 2018 for $5.99 (about €5.40) per month, or $64.99 per year (about €58.30). Fox Nation customers have access to films and documentaries, as well as shows hosted by Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Nancy Grace. This editorial strategy seems to have found its audience since variety revealed that Fox Nation saw a 40% increase in subscriber numbers between mid-February and May 2021.