A leading regional daily is today venturing into paid-for content online for the first time by charging users £1 to read a digital version of a popular supplement.

The Manchester Evening News has created a digital edition of ‘Dream Factory,’ a 48-page souvenir supplement celebrating the centenary of Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium.

The supplement includes interviews with former players, memories from the fans, archive photographs of the great players down the years and a look behind the scenes at Old Trafford.

The digital edition, created using Pagesuite’s ‘turning pages’ technology, is available for the same price as the print version, which has been on sale in newsagents around Greater Manchester for the last two weeks.

Readers who pay to view the digital edition will gain the added bonus feature of video interviews with United legends including Teddy Sheringham, Wilf McGuinness and Jimmy Greenhoff.

It is the first time that MEN Media has put online editorial content behind a pay wall.

Head of online content Paul Gallagher said he hoped the move would enable the paper to capitalise on United’s huge global fanbase, millions of whom would have been unable to access the print edition.

The digital edition can be viewed from this page.

Comments

Alan Salter (19/02/2010 10:28:34)
For all our sakes, let’s hope this works.

Andrew Jenkins (19/02/2010 10:56:18)
This is what digital editions were created for. As a United fan myself I’ve purchased both the print (yes I am a United fan living in Manchester!) and now the digital edition, mainly for the video interviews. Your report fails to mention that you can actually get a cheaper price if you are a member of an official United fan group (there is a voucher code option). This can discount by as much as 50%.

Alan Formby-Jackson (19/02/2010 10:58:16)
Good idea, but why use the “turning pages” technology? Design the extra content for the screen as a website, not a poor replica of a print product.

JustifiedPessamism (19/02/2010 12:20:40)
The key to this is what Andrew has said. Too many websites, and my own paper is as guilty, simply reproduce online what is in the paper. By including video interviews and extras, it will tempt not only those who can’t got hold of the MEN to buy, but also those who can get the print product but want something extra. Well done to the MEN for this idea and I actually thing, given its mass appeal, something like this will work well. How it will translate to paywalls for ‘run of the mill’ newspaper content is much less certain, but if that is the future then the key is to give the reader extras they can’t get in the paper. Sport is a good place to start because things like full press conferences can be put up as videos, featuring copy that isn’t in the paper.

JustifiedPessamism (19/02/2010 12:21:46)
Quite a few literals in that last post I’ve just realised.
Blame fast typing and keep the subs!

Paul (19/02/2010 14:51:33)
Great idea but this isn’t going to be indicative of how page-for content will work. A supplement in the MEN which will be of interest to readers across the entire world, particularly in the Far East, won’t prove or disprove how many people will pay to read the bread and butter stories that local papers have relied on for decades.