CNN has installed a digital paywall for its website and is now charging some users in the United States to read articles on the popular news website.
Starting Tuesday, individuals who read “a certain number of articles” on CNN.com every month will be asked to pay a membership of $3.99 to gain full access to the site.
“We are asking users in the United States to pay a small recurring fee for unlimited access to CNN.com’s world-class articles,” Alex MacCallum, CNN’s executive VP of digital products and services, said in a statement announcing the changes.
Besides getting fewer digital ads, paying subscribers will also gain access to exclusive content, including election features and original documentaries, MacCallum said.
The company’s news subscription-based model was first announced by the company’s chairman and CEO Mark Thompson over the summer as part of an effort to expand its online news business amid a rapidly evolving news landscape.
According to Thompson, the nation’s most visited news website was gearing up to create “best-in-class, subscription-ready products” in an effort to provide “need-to-know news, analysis and context in compelling new formats and experiences” — a move that would start with the company’s first-ever subscription product, which was set to launch “before the end of 2024.”
The paid subscription — which currently only applies to regular users of the site — is expected to expand in the coming months.
“Over time, we will invest in ways to better meet our users’ needs and expand our aperture to engage and serve new audiences,” MacCallum said.
Several news outlets, including the Daily News, are behind paywalls that offer a limited number of free articles to all readers every month. Habitual users are prompted to sign up for a digital membership after reading a certain number of free articles per month. The amount of free stories may varybased on the news cycle and time of year.
Tuesday’s announcement comes more than two years after the epic failure of CNN’s much-hyped streaming service.
CNN+ — which launched on March 29, 2022 to big fanfare and backed by a cable news stars-filled lineup — shut down just weeks later after its new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, deemed the project too expensive.
After ending the service on April 30, the company said it would “focus [its] investment on CNN’s core news-gathering operations and in further building CNN Digital,” Chris Licht, CNN’s former and short-lived CEO said at the time.