If you can’t monetise the service through advertising, then paid subscription is the alternative usually adopted to keep the service alive. The Hindu, the Chennai-headquartered newspaper, has made its e-paper pay from February 9. The readers have to dish out $10 or Rs 400 every month to get access to the e-edition (the subscription details here). The web editions will remain free.
I am sure one of the reasons could be that a big chunk of its readers could be NRIs. However, I think $10 is a bit steep even for NRI audience. Indians are anyways unlikely to dish out cash to read e-paper since the hard copy is easily available at one-fourth of the costs.
It remains to be seen now if others like Hindustan Times and The Times of India will go pay.
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