Talking in a session entitled "Show me the Money", Gurtej Sandhu explained that News International's decision to introduce a payment model was "based on the principle that journalism has value".
The conference session was examining ways in which media companies can monetise their digital content in an increasingly multiplatform world.
One of the speakers was James Bromley, managing director of MailOnline, who implied that DMGT had no plans to start charging for its own website.
"I don’t think that having data on our customers is the motivating factor for us not erecting a paywall," he said.
Data and its use to cross-sell was an underlying theme of the AOP session.
But Bromley argued: "We are not interested in playing the SEO game, we are interested in people coming to our website. The brand is very important to us, which is why brand advertising is where we see our future."
But the Mail brand is looking to grow revenues in other areas. One that Bromley marked out was in creating content for brands to engage them with Mail readers.
The Mail’s website was working for the paper, he said, attracting 47 million unique users a month and bringing on board a "younger and higher demographic" of reader to the main paper, according to Bromley.
He added that the Mail was making a profit in the US, albeit a small one at a lower ad yield than in the UK, but he admitted that the brand was still an unknown brand across the Atlantic.
He said: "That’s going to change as the growth continues."
However, News International’s Sandhu said he was not allowed to divulge any figures to substantiate the success of The Times paywall, while acknowledging that it commanded a much smaller share of audience.
"There’s no question that once you get behind the paywall you have a much smaller audience," he said.
"The whole point of that subscription model is to ensure online value. You do get a very focused audience and more engagement from them than a free site."
He claimed that this translated into a successful advertising model.
"Advertising yields are interesting," he said. "We’re confident of our relationship with advertisers. Do we believe in the ad model in this? Yes. Do we believe in the subscription model in this? Yes.
"We’re at a point at News International where we’re looking at the evolution point to move on. From our perspective, it is to be on as many platforms as we can be on."
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