The publisher will be using PayPal’s faster checkout for online content, PayPal for Digital Goods – which means users do not have to enter their card details when they want to purchase a subscription – to speed up and simplify the process.
News International has been running a paid-for subscription model for the sundaytimes.co.uk and thetimes.co.uk . Subscribers pay £2 for a week’s subscription, or £1 for a day's access for the two sites.
Readers can either buy a 24-hour pass for content from the Times and Sunday Times or get a subscription, which includes mobile access and both iPad editions for £1 for the first 30 days, then £2 a week.
Carl Scheible, managing director of PayPal UK, said PayPal had been investing heavily in creating payment solutions for media publishers.
He said: "News International has blazed a trail for media owners everywhere by showing that people are willing to pay for online content.
"Rupert Murdoch recently said the media industry was entering a digital renaissance. We agree, and we’re here to help make it happen."
The move follows the Financial Times’s tie-up with PayPal last October, to create a portal to make it easier for readers to sign up to its various metered content subscriptions.
The Financial Times also uses PayPal for its press cuttings tool, allowing users to email full text articles for £1 per recipient.
It is unknown whether the partnership with PayPal means News International is reviewing its current paywall strategy for the Times and Sunday Times, in favour of a metered access subscription model similar to the Financial Times’s.
The Telegraph Media Group is understood to be working on a paid-content model, which would see it charging for certain content on a metered basis later this year.
.jpg)
.jpg)