Times and Sunday Times target regular readers with membership scheme

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Times and Sunday Times target regular readers with membership schemePlan to offer special benefits for a £50 annual fee marks shift from growing audience to making money from regular readers

Chris Tryhorn guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 October 2009 12.57

The Times: the move looks to concentrate on making money from regular readers rather then building as big an audience as possible in print and online

The Times and the Sunday Times (NewsCorp) have launched a membership scheme offering their readers special offers and access to exclusive events in return for a £50 annual fee.

The initiative, called Times+, is designed to develop new revenue streams by rewarding readers' loyalty.

It also heralds a strategic shift for the papers' owner, News International, as it looks to concentrate on making money from regular readers rather than building as big an audience as possible in print and online.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the Times papers' ultimate parent company, News Corporation, has already signalled his intention to start charging for online access to his papers' journalism.

It is thought that James Murdoch, News Corporation's chief in Europe and Asia and the chairman of BSkyB, has brought his experience of pay television to bear on the company's thinking.

"Times+ gives us the opportunity to redefine further our relationship with our readers and to reward their loyalty," said Katie Vanneck-Smith, the managing director of News International's Customer Direct division.

"We are moving away from the traditional model of volume in favour of developing more direct relationships with our customers based on their interests and passions."

Times+ – whose name has echoes of the Sky personal video recorder Sky+ – is complimentary to the more than 150,000 people who subscribe to the Times and Sunday Times.

The move builds on the arts and entertainment programme Culture+, which now has more than 90,000 members a year after launching.

Culture+ is complimentary to subscribers but has not charged an additional membership fee of any kind.

It will now become part of the Times+ offering as one of two extra packages along with Travel+. More packs are to be added over the next 12 months.

Times+ members will get one of the packs for free and can buy another for £50, while those with subscriptions will pay just £25 for an extra pack.

The deals offer readers special offers in their areas of interest and the chance to attend events that often feature Times and Sunday Times journalists.

Travel+ will also offer a year's subscription to the Sunday Times Travel magazine, worth £42, and has signed up partners such as Cox & Kings and Virgin Holidays.

One of the perks that Times+ members can enjoy is a free Sky+ HD box if they take out a premium subscription with either sport or movies to Sky, which is 39% owned by News Corporation.

The titles are expected to start charging online some time in the next year, although it is not clear how this will be done.

Newspaper groups are investigating new revenue streams as advertising revenues come under increasing pressure and print circulation declines.

Among the UK's national titles, only the Financial Times has had any success in persuading readers to pay online, with more than 117,000 subscribers.

Other newspapers have struggled to convert their large online reach into sufficiently high advertising revenues to cover the cost of providing content for free.

The Guardian is considering a similar initiative and in August advertised for a manager to run a proposed readers' club.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

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Guardian to hire manager for planned readers' club
Proposal 'in early stages of development', says publisher


Chris Tryhorn guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 August 2009 07.05 BST

The Guardian is to hire a manager to run a planned readers' club that could build a new revenue stream for the paper.

Offered as a one-year contract, the job is advertised in the MediaGuardian print section and on its website today.

The Guardian – owned by Guardian News & Media, which also publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk – said the idea for a club scheme remained "in the early stages of development".

Newspapers are looking to develop new revenue streams with advertising under pressure in the downturn and sales in long-term decline.

"The Guardian is an extremely successful brand with a committed, loyal readership online and in print," a spokeswoman for the paper said.

"It makes sense for the business and for our readers to both harness and reward that loyalty. Our recently launched subscription scheme is one way of doing so and another idea under consideration is a Guardian offering based around the concept of a 'friends' scheme or members' club.

"This proposal is still very much in the early stages of development. We are currently researching the idea and have advertised for a general manager of the scheme on a one-year contract basis."

Today's advert says the club initiative "aims to move us decisively away from the traditional rather distant relationship that newspaper companies have had with their readers".

The new manager will be responsible for helping to define the club's ambitions, creating the business plan and delivering a successful launch.

Applications are sought by Sunday 13 September and the appointee will report to the GNM managing director, Tim Brooks.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

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By Fiona Ramsay, marketingmagazine.co.uk, 05 October 2009, 10:37am


LONDON - News International hopes to boost the readership of The Times through a membership rewards scheme called Times+.


The programme will act as an umbrella membership brand, encompassing its Culture+ scheme, which was launched last year to existing subscribers.

A Travel+ scheme will also sit under the Times+ banner, to be joined in the coming months by other section-related schemes such as Food & Drink. Brand partners in the Travel+ package will include Eurostar, Mr & Mrs Smith and Virgin Holidays.

Times+ will target both subscribers and prospective customers. Katie Vanneck-Smith, managing director customer direct, News International, said Culture+ had been launched as a retention tool for The Times but would also drive new subscriptions. Non-subscribers will be charged £50 a year to receive information about Times+ events, offers and gifts but will be free to subscribers.

The programme will be backed by a campaign featuring the newspaper's columnists, including Jeremy Clarkson, Cosmo Landesman and Libby Purves advocating Times+. The scheme is being launched with a Times+ membership card and website created by digital agency Clock.

Vanneck-Smith, who aims to sign up 150,000 members to the scheme, said it would help The Times ‘create a value proposition so that we become less reliant on advertising'.

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NewsCorp runs a loyalty scheme for subscribers to The Times and Sunday Times. The website is here.