News International withdraws from Databases

The future delivery of online newspapers and whether, in fact, they are financially viable has been a favourite industry topic in recent years. Sometime ago we posted a piece on the 'paywall' recently installed on The Times and Sunday Times websites. [See July 14th] At the time we were wondering if this was the future for online newspapers. It would seem that News International thinks it is. Two of the Library's major database suppliers - Westlaw UK and the Lexis and Nexis services - have now informed us that The Times, Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World have all withdrawn their archives from these databases and terminated all future provision. It seems that the only way we are going to get to read News International publications online from now on is to pay up and scale that paywall!

What a paywall looks like!

Take a look at the new 'paywall' introduced on July 2nd. by the The Times and Sunday Times newspapers. The paywall is a screen you get when you try to go beyond the homepage at thetimes.co.uk. The options are a 24 hour day pass for £1 or you can pay £1 for 30 days and £2 per week thereafter. BBC Breakfast called the paywall 'a tollbooth in the middle of the ocean' and the Guardian has offered a warm welcome to 'former Times readers'. Is this the future for online newspapers? Apart from complaining about the need to login all the time, The Times blog comments are surprisingly favourable.