DC Thomson joins charging trend with digital editions

Aberdeen's Press and Journal has become the latest newspaper to start charging for digital editions of the printed paper.

The DC Thomson-owned title is using PageSuite's digital edition technology to produce replicas of its seven regional editions.

Subscribers can pay £100 for a year, £10 for a month or 45p per issue – the same price as the print version - with the option to test drive the technology for free using an old edition.

Group stablemate the Evening Express has also launched a paid-for digital edition using the same software, with packages of £80 for a year, £8 for a month and 40p per issue.

Pagesuite's technology is already used for paid-for digital editions of the Daily Express, Daily Star, Guardian Weekly and South London Press.

Regional newspaper publisher Tindle Newspapers has used the technology to trial online paywalls on six of its newspaper sites. Users of the sites are given headlines and extracts of stories but encouraged to sign-up to a paid-for digital replica of the print edition.

According to reports last month, the success of the trial has led to plans to introduce the paywalls on up to 40 Tindle sites.

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