Trinity Mirror to trial paid-for online subscription for Newcastle's The Journal

by Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 18-Apr-05, 11:00

LONDON - Trinity Mirror is to run a digital trial of a paid-for subscription for its Newcastle newspaper The Journal, as part of a test of the viability of paid-for newspapers online.

The newspaper currently has no website of its own, but contributes content to ICNewcastle along with sister Tyneside paper The Evening Chronicle.

The ICNewcastle site is part of Trinity Mirror's network of local news websites that also includes ICWales, where Trinity Mirror publishes The Western Mail, the South Wales Echo and Wales on Sunday, and and ICLiverpool, which pulls content from Liverpool Daily Post.

The introduction of the paid-for online version of The Journal is due to go live within a few months. Trinity Mirror is also planning a redesign of the Daily Mirror website, which goes live this week.

Humphrey Cobbold, director of strategy at the Trinity Mirror Group, said that the move was a pilot to test the digital publishing model.

Along with the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, the People and the Daily Record, Trinity Mirror owns a network of 240 regional newspapers. In 2001, its digital operations made a loss of £23m, but by 2004 it had moved back into the black.

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