L’idea del FT è quella di puntare alla comunità e alla segmentazione dei suoi lettori free, modificando con intelligenza il modello First Click free di Google (via Paid Content)
The free articles for free-registered readers has also been reduced to 10 a month. But unregistered readers who come via Google, will still get five free articles, under its adoption of Google’s modified First-Click-Free scheme.
FT.com wants readers to register for free because it gives the paper valuable demographic data with which to target advertisers’ ads and special offers for its own subscription package. It now has 1.9 million users with free accounts, which has helped it grow to 121,000 paying subscribers.
In 2007, the site introduced this access model to give five free articles a month to casual readers, and 25 to free-registered users, as incentives to subscribe. But, watching its paying customers grow since then, it reduced the five free articles to one a month, and now to none. Now the Financial Times is getting really bullish about its web access model. In another tweak, it’s now ensuring that no free articles are on offer to non-registered users.