NewsPage Reaches 50,000 Registered Web Users
On the same day it announced passing the 50,000 registered user milestone, Individual Inc. also announced two pricing plans for its NewsPage World Wide Web-based news service. Two plans are available for individual use. There is the "basic" service which allows users to read the full-text of 40% of the stories available in NewsPage, (which is typically limited to news releases) for which a flat fee of $2.95 per month applies.
"premium" service is also available, which allows users to read all of the full-text versions of stories in NewsPage. Twenty percent of those stories will have additional pay-per-view charges associated with them, which generally range from a nickel (5c) to about $8, John Zahner, Vice President of Business Development, told infoHIGHWAY. Premium charges include a flat subscription fee of $6.95 per month, plus any pay-per-view charges. For the past few months, NewsPage had been offered for free during a trial period.
ompany officials said the low rates will only be offered to the first 50,000 users. All single-user subscriptions will be billed to major credit cards, and for users with Netscape 1.0 (or higher) Web browser, this can be securely processed online.
Infohighway is one of the more than 500 sources in the NewsPage service, which includes other newswires, newspapers, trade magazines, industry- specific newsletters, government sources, and financial information. Current sponsors include Digital Equipment Corporation, Sun Microsystems, America Online, 3Com, and QMS.
Discounts are available to users, including a $2.95 decrease in the monthly service charge, if users choose to make their names available to receive marketing literature relevant to their information needs. This is equal to the basic rate, which means that users electing to be traded to list brokers get the basic service for free.
Everyone owns the rights to their name, and we're very concerned about security and privacy issues," Zahner said. "Each user of the service has the right to their own name. We can't do anything with it, unless we have the express permission from the user. We think that's worth something, and that they should get paid for it." Discounts are also available to corporations with multiple users, Zahner added.
NewsPage can be found on the Web at http://www.newspage.com .
Beyond surpassing 50,000 registered users, the company also said it receives 1.5 million hits a week, and was recently chosen by Interactive Age magazine as the 18th most heavily visited site on the Web.