August 30, 2017
The days of reading unlimited articles on Philly.com for free are almost over.
Starting Sept. 5, the digital home of the Inquirer and Daily News will only allow users without a subscription to read 10 articles a month before the content is hidden behind a paywall.
Philadelphia Media Network, which runs the two print publications and website, made the official announcement Wednesday, according to KYW Newsradio.
Digital subscriptions for print subscribers will start at 25 or 50 cents a week, depending on what they already pay for, and digital-only access will start at 99 cents for the first four weeks, going up to $2.99 a week thereafter.
A company statement said traditional advertising could no longer support all of the media company's options, according to KYW.
The paywall was hinted at in a May article for Poynter, which reported that Philly.com was planning to launch a digital subscriptions model sometime in the third or fourth quarter of 2017.
Kim Fox, managing editor for audience development, said at the time a lot of additional changes would be coming once the paywall was put up, with the focus around trying to turn casual readers into subscribers.
