59Subscription and Payment Models

2012How can journalism earn money in the digital age? Through reach? Through advertising? Yes – but also through paying users. On December 12, 2012, the WELT Group introduced new digital subscription models and became the first of the major national German news websites to launch a paid model for its previously free website. With this step, Axel Springer continued the premium initiative launched in 2009, with the goal of creating successful paid offerings for digital journalistic content. BILD followed with BILDplus on June 11, 2013. By November 2018, the two services together had 500,000 subscriptions.