If you are an avid reader of The Straits Times, you might have noticed a rather peculiar phenomenon.

After reading a few articles, you might be met with this rather disheartening news:

Which could result in a few options.

Either subscribe, possibly taking up one of their four subscription packages, or wait patiently till the end of the month to read another article.

And some aren't happy that these are the only choices.

With some even posting warnings on articles they didn't feel was worth one of the precious 15 articles they had access to.

Alternative options

A possible reason for implementing this paywall is due to the recent slide in their first quarter profits.

Singapore Press Holdings, which owns ST, reported a 43.8 percent slide in their net profits for the first quarter.

Prior to this, ST had been rolling out questionable money making methods for a while now.

Be it their Wine delivery, or their S$100 personalised greetings.

Paywall

This method isn't new by any means.

Publications like The New York Times have been implementing a free article limit for a while now.

This is their all-digital subscription pricing.

Which works out to about S$22 a month, even without the discount.

With the discount, it works out to around S$10 a month.

This is ST's digital plan.

For some reason, there's currently a discount if you include the actual newspaper into your subscription, but it still works up to around S$30 a month.

Will it work?

NYT has been doing extremely well despite their paywall though, especially in the post-Trump world.

It seems that people will pay when they think a particular newspaper is instrumental in keeping those in power accountable.

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