The daily titles formerly owned by Archant are to adopt the metered paywall model introduced by their new owner Newsquest three years ago.

Newsquest introduced online subscription to the websites of all of the regional dailies it then owned in April 2020.

Readers are required to register after reading 20 articles in a month and are asked to subscribe after reading 40.

Subscribers then received access to an unlimited number of articles, an 80pc reduction in visible advertising on the site, and the ability to post comments online.

Now the model is being rolled out to the websites of the four former Archant regional dailies purchased by Newsquest last year for an initial fee of £1 a month.

The Eastern Daily Press already has a part-paywall and the East Anglian Daily Times, Norwich Evening News, Ipswich Star and PinkUn are now following suit.

Explaining the move, EADT editor Liz Nice, pictured, said:  “I realise that, after many years of being able to see our web content for free, this may come as a shock to some but I very much hope you will consider doing so to help us continue to provide the dedicated local journalism we have been providing to Suffolk since 1874.

“When something has always been there, it is easy to take it for granted but we have all got used to subscribing to television content and I hope, in time, the same will be the case with local news.

“If it isn’t, it’s quite simple. We won’t be able to do it any more and that would be a great shame.

“Every week, our journalists are out there, holding power to account, fixing injustices within our community, shining a light on the things that many would rather remain hidden and encouraging their sources and contacts to tell us the things we need and want to know.

“But none of this stuff is really free. The adverts have helped pay for it up until now but the more adverts we have on our sites, the more difficult it is to read an article uninterrupted.

“The app will allow you to do that – and £1 a month, which is our introductory offer – is a lot cheaper than the paper itself.”