The oldest newspaper of Malta has entered into a new era. Just two months ago, Times of Malta, which is also the most popular newspaper on the island, launched a metered paywall for the very first time – a practice that is still not widespread in this least populated state of the EU.

Their newsroom is staffed by 12 full-time journalists, plus various editors and occasional or regular contributors. Their website receives over a million unique visitors each month.

The daily printed newspaper founded in 1935 also launched a mobile app at the same time. In addition to building audience loyalty, particularly through notifications, the outlet media also hopes to reach a younger audience.

With nearly 300,000 Facebook followers and over 100,000 on X, Times of Malta reaches both Maltese and expats who want to stay informed about the island's news.

The Fix spoke to Alex Galea, the executive director of Times of Malta.

What motivated the launch of a paywall and a mobile app now?

In recent years, our print operation has been going through some very challenging times, both on the advertising and on the circulation front. The pandemic expedited the transition from print to digital by decimating our print revenues, so we have to transition more rapidly to a digital-first environment.

We still have a print operation today, even though in much smaller volumes, but obviously our focus remains predominantly digital. By digital, I mean the web presence and now also our app presence, to serve our readers in Malta but also a substantial portion of our audience that resides predominantly in the US, Australia and the UK and wants to remain connected with what's happening in Malta.

The paywall strategy is very widespread now, but for you, is this really a first in Malta?

Malta is the EU's smallest member state, with a population of just over half a million. There are a few other media organisations on the island, but we are the first publisher to roll out. News consumption in our country has always been free of charge, so it's a bet.

What strategy is behind your paywall?

What we have in place today is a metered paywall. So we give out the first 20 articles for free, and thereafter the paywall kicks in the article counter [and] is reset every beginning of the month. We have, at the moment, a three-month subscription for ` euros or an annual subscription for 109.99 euros for 12 months.

Back in 2013, we had launched a bit of a similar service, but that sort of evolved into an e-paper service where paying subscribers can actually access our e-paper platform, which is a digital replica of the print edition. Today the subscription offer includes the e-paper platform. It's actually an enhanced platform. We've embellished the experience as well as unlimited articles and the other benefits.

After two months of launch, what are the first results, and have you set yourself any objectives to achieve?

It’s still in the early days. So we are closely monitoring the performance, but the first numbers have been very, very encouraging, ahead of our sort of original expectations, which is great. As time goes by, then obviously we will be sharing some key metrics. But the uptake has been pretty encouraging so far now.

And how to limit churn?

Our challenge remains to maintain the current momentum and, obviously, make sure that churn remains as low as possible, so ideally our subscribers remain sort of locked in with us for the foreseeable future. We'll be releasing new subscription plans for senior citizens, and shortly after, we will also be rolling out offers for family and friends.

Obviously our focus for the time being is to build volume, to grow the audience, and to make sure that the same audience remains. In this subscription period, subscriptions will be our primary focus, but in parallel we plan to turn out more high-value content. Good content is ultimately what our audience is willing to pay for at the end of the day.

With the mobile app, is it also a way for you to reach the younger generation?

Yes, we hope to reach, obviously, a younger audience. The app remains free of charge to download. So our users can consume up to 20 of these for free through the app without necessarily subscribing.

Obviously, the application allows us to build a more loyal audience because there is a deeper integral interaction with our audience, a much better experience overall, as well as some additional functionality, which includes the e-paper service, push notifications, and listening to articles or text-to-speech service. These are all additional benefits that you do not get, essentially, just by browsing the web on a desktop PC.

Do these new features impact the way your newsroom operates?

In recent years we adopted a digital-first kind of editorial strategy. So that remains pretty much in place, and it's top of mind. Now, it’s even more important because, obviously, we have a paying audience. So we need to make sure that we serve that audience in the best possible ways. We try as much as possible not only to be the first to bring the news but also to verify the content and pay attention to the quality of the news.

Source of the cover photo: generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, DALL·E

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Times Of Malta

A paywall and a mobile app: the Times of Malta bet

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