When you read comments such as don’t just read The Times – listen to it, watch it, shape it, be part of it and Question our journalists in The Hot Seat in the context of a Murdoch publication that will be switching to some sort of subscription model then a degree of excitement is legitimate.

You can read more about the above here: www.timesplus.co.uk/welcome/index.htm

Pressure is on to deliver…

So the pressure is on to deliver on the promise of an online newspaper that engages beyond reader comments and the occasional video clip to justify readers parting with their hard earned cash.

In a previous post I argued that online newspapers need their own economy where users can earn, spend, invest and speculate as part of the experience.

In its most basic form this means rewarding those who contribute. Extend that by introducing a currency and you will allow all sorts of interactions.

Reward readers that contribute

Perhaps this is a bit far fetched and not quite in tune with an online newspaper’s core offer. But unless a paper like The Times rewards those who contribute they risk pissing them off. They need to do what YouTube did a while ago and ‘reward creativity’ via a revenue sharing scheme — the Partner program.

The new version of The Times will be live some time in May. It will be interesting to see if it sets a benchmark in terms of innovation and whether it will be good enough to justify paying for it.