In contrast to 247, Folha will charge for digital content.
Starting Thursday, the newspaper's website will no longer feature the "Folha.com" logo, will publish all the content from the print version, and will be a paid service; the subscription will cost R$ 29,90 per month.
247 – Next Thursday, the Folha.com portal will cease to exist. With the Folha de S.Paulo logo, the new site will launch with all the content from the print version. Another new feature is that the site will be paid. The newspaper will release up to 20 articles per month and another 20 after completing a registration. The remainder will be available for R$ 29,90 per month. Read more in the Folha article:
Starting Thursday, Folha will begin charging for frequent access to its website, which will feature all the content from the print version, including columnists.
Subscribers to the print newspaper will continue to have unrestricted access to all formats of the newspaper - online, on tablets and on mobile phones. Those who subscribe to the digital package can also read the newspaper on any screen.
Website visitors can read up to 20 articles per month for free. After that, they will be asked to fill out a short registration form, which will grant access to another 20 news articles or columns for free. From the forty-first article onwards, the visitor will be invited to purchase a paid subscription.
Subscribers to UOL, a company controlled by Grupo Folha, which publishes Folha de S.Paulo, will continue to have access to the website's articles, but not to the physical edition of the newspaper.
The change takes effect the day after tomorrow and also involves the newspaper's website name. It will now feature the Folha de S.Paulo logo instead of the current Folha.com, which will cease to exist.
An advertising campaign created by the agency Africa will publicize the new features starting Thursday, including the promotional subscription price of R$ 1,90 for the first month and R$ 29,90 for subsequent months.
The model that the newspaper will use on its website follows a global trend. It has been adopted by several media outlets as a way to compensate for the quality journalism they provide.
Known as a "paywall," it aims to increase convenience and content availability for those who enjoy reading the newspaper without blocking casual internet users.
Folha is already a pioneer in the use of this system in Brazil. It has been in effect since January in the tablet and mobile app, and the newspaper is now the first in the country to use it on its website as well. Other Brazilian newspapers are working to adopt a similar business model.
"With this measure, the newspaper reinforces its primacy in terms of innovation in the Brazilian landscape and completes the integration between print and digital," says Folha's editor-in-chief, Otavio Frias Filho.
"The difference between paid print newspapers and free online newspapers, which has existed since the beginning of the internet, is giving way to a model that reflects the changes in the way news is produced, distributed and consumed," says Antonio Manuel Teixeira Mendes, managing director of the company.
The most notorious case of this model is that of the American newspaper "The New York Times". Adopted in March 2011, it gained 454 digital subscribers for the New York daily in one year.