FT.com commits at last to subscription packages

The company said today that it will launch a new site in May, with improved content, tools and navigation, and new subscription packages - which it hopes users will take up in return for access to more valuable content, including business analysis, research and intelligence services.

While the site's latest news will remain free to all users, the widely-expected move will see two levels of subscriptions becoming available, the first costing £75 per annum for access to all FT articles, five years of news and features, FT surveys, online access to pages from the FT newspaper, a 'power search' and a personal office organising system. 'Level 2', costing £200 per year, will also include professional research and monitoring tools.

FT.com COO Zach Leonard said the company expects the subscriptions to account for up to 10% of its total revenues this year.

In a statement, he said: "The business model for online news and data used to be built around either advertising or subscription revenues.

Our business model combines the best of both approaches. We've committed that FT.com will break even by the end of this year, and it will - even without the benefits of the additional revenues that our new subscription services will generate."

The site, which claims to have 2.7m unique monthly users, accounted for around half of the FT Group's internet losses of £60m last year.

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