The Australian's online subscriber base may top 45,000, official circulation data is expected to show. That would represent double digit growth for the first quarter and provide a robust rebuttal to suggestions that the paywall strategy for The Aus would be overhauled due to poor results.
News Limited group sales director Fiorella di Santo told AdNews that the firm's group sales structure was also delivering results and dismissed suggestions that News had lifted chunks of its paywall strategy from Fairfax.
“We don't follow. We always had a firm view that consumers must pay for content.” She said that News had “been watching the [UK's] Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal” but that the firm had not played “follow the leader … Nobody has all the answers.”
Di Santo said micro payment options, for example for customers reading content on mobile phones, might be considered in the future, but were not currently part of the firm's plans.
Asked whether any protection had been put in place to stop people circumventing the paywall, Di Santo said people would always be able to get around fences. However, she said the firm was confident that “if you provide relevant, compelling content people will pay.”
The company remains convinced that those that circumvent the paywall, which is easy to do via search engines, represent a small proportion that would “probably never pay”.
Di Santo said that creating a group 'mega' sales structure, involving Foxtel and MCN, was not on the cards and insisted that the centralised model introduce last year had not come at the expense of brand expertise.
“My view is that advertisers engage around audiences. We will sell them brands if that is what they want to do but will seek to give the best [integrated] solution. We're happy [with the centralised approach] but that doesn't preclude us having a conversation with advertisers solely about The Telegraph if that is what they want.”
While there were “no plans for a 'mega' structure, we do have plans for a group sell sport structure”, said Di Santo. That would represent a logical move given the integration of Fox Sports content across the news+ network announced yesterday.
Had the 'mega' sales structure been discussed? “We always look at new opportunities. The market is changing constantly,” said Di Santo. “We do what the market wants.”
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