No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeTopicsBusinessGrupo Nación begins charging for online content

Grupo Nación begins charging for online content

Grupo Nación, one of Costa Rica’s largest media groups, on Tuesday announced it will begin charging for online content for the daily La Nación and the weekly El Financiero, two of its most popular media outlets.

The company will begin charging a monthly membership that allows unlimited access to the sites’ content. Subscriptions for either one of the papers is ₡3,000 ($5.50), which “also grants access to new applications for mobile devices,” La Nación reported. Subscribers to the print editions will have free access to online editions.

Both papers will offer free access to a limited number of articles per month. La Nación will allow visitors free access to 15 stories per month, and El Financiero will grant access to a maximum of five.

In a public statement, La Nación’s Editor-in-Chief Armando González said, “quality digital journalism requires investment, and in order to achieve it, online media must generate income, just as the world’s most important publications acknowledged when they launched their digital media subscription models years ago.”

A story published by both papers states that Grupo Nación is “following the path of other world media leaders such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and the New Yorker, which already are charging for their online content.”

The debate over charging for access to news websites has been going on for years. Peter Marsh, an executive with U.S. technology company Newscycle, which specializes in providing software to media companies, added to the debate last year with an investigation.

Marsh polled 45 newspapers from the U.S. and other companies and found that nearly three out of four newspapers surveyed (73 percent) are currently charging readers to access online content, and almost 40 percent have set “hard” paywalls. The remaining 60 percent use a “soft” or metered paywall, at varying degrees.

González stressed that the decision is more than a business model: “What we are betting on here is the citizens’ appreciation of the concept of independent press, which without any pressure from economic influences, can fulfill its expected oversight role over governments and other political decision makers.”

Trending Now

Flying Around Costa Rica is Easier Than Ever Thanks to Sansa Airlines

The airline recently added two new aircraft to its fleet, bringing their total to twelve. That increase allows SANSA to boost service to smaller...

Dominical to Quepos: The Costa Rican Road That Took 30 Years to Finish

The original Pan-American Highway heading south from San José once took a dramatic and daunting route. It passed through the old capital of Cartago...

A Closer Look at the Elusive Purple Gallinule in Costa Rica

Quick! Think of a purple bird! It’s a little difficult, right? I searched my brain and came up with a purple martin. A small...

Meet the Bats of Costa Rica from Tent Makers to Fish Hunters

Costa Rica is home to around 220 species of non-marine mammals. Roughly half of those species, 117 is the current number, are the type...

El Salvador at Center of Controversial U.S.-Venezuela Detainee Exchange

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele received the 10 Americans exchanged on Friday between Washington and Caracas for 252 Venezuelans who had spent four months in...

Caral Citadel in Peru Opens After 3,800 Years

A 3,800-year-old citadel belonging to the Caral civilization—one of the oldest in the world—opened its doors to the public this Saturday after eight years...
L. Arias
L. Arias
Reporter | The Tico Times |
spot_img
Costa Rica Tours
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica