In an effort to continue bringing subscribers the best product possible, The Anniston Star will begin charging non-subscribers to the newspaper for access to its Web site.The charge will be in place beginning Aug. 1.
Access to the site for non-Anniston Star subscribers will cost $4 per month. Subscribers to the print version of the newspaper will continue to have free access to the online version.
"The online version of The Star is an additional service we have been offering for some time, but it is a service that costs a lot of money to put on," said Star Publisher H. Brandt Ayers. "We want to continue to improve our product and offer the best service possible, but to do that, we can't continue to give something away that costs us money."
The decision to charge for online access puts The Star ahead of what Ayers says he thinks will soon be an industry trend.
"Eventually, all newspaper Web sites will be paid," he said. "In the meantime, we have one of our most talented people in charge of our site. (Online director Geni Certain) is a former managing editor and is one of the most talented executives to ever work at The Star."
Certain has had her hands in the development of The Star's Web site since it first ventured into online publishing in 1996. She has spent the past two years as online director, devoting much of that time to coming up with the best way to manage the cost of maintaining the site without sacrificing quality.
"We have the same high standards for our online content as we have always had for our print content," Certain said. "We also see changes coming in the way people choose to receive their news. Already more than 8,000 people per day choose to get their news through the Web site, and I think that number will be growing over the next few years. We don't know how long it will be before our online subscribers exceed the number who receive the paper in print, but we expect that day will come."
Certain said that, among the handful of newspapers that already are charging for access, there are several different methods, including charging for the most popular sections and services or charging for access to archives.
"We considered a lot of possibilities before deciding to do this," Certain said. "I approached this decision from a reader's point of view, because I use a lot of online sources. Personally, I would rather pay $4 a month and have access to everything than to pay every time I want to look at a specific item."
By paying the flat rate of $4 a month, Certain says, subscribers will be guaranteed complete access to all services currently provided through the Web site, as well as to new features that she expects to develop in the coming months. One new service that will be available to paid subscribers will be emailed headlines.
"We'll be doing a lot of things as time goes on, but one of the first things will be an email headline service," Certain said. "That allows subscribers to select news from various sections of the paper and have the headlines and synopses e-mailed to them as soon as the edition is published. If we have updates during the day, those also will be e-mailed as they become available."
For subscribers to the print version of the paper, access to the Web site will involve simply signing in with their subscription information (name, address, phone number) as well as an email address and an original password.
Non-subscribers will need to provide the same information, as well as a credit card number for payment. Online subscriptions will be sold for a minimum of three months but can be ordered in three- ($12), six- ($24) or 12-month ($48) increments.
While that will be a big increase for those who have grown accustomed to having access to the site for free, Certain says she hopes the paper's online community will continue to grow.
"There are a lot of people who prefer to read local news online and don't have a need for the actual newspaper," Certain said. "We're asking them to pay for that content, but the rate is going to be less than half the rate of home delivery and quite a bit less than the price out of the rack.
"What we hope to do is formalize membership in our community of online readers. I get an enormous amount of feedback, both from people in the community and people who lived here and have moved on but use the site as a way to keep up with what's going on. Those are the people we hope will stick with us, because those are the people who have told us they value what we are doing."
