Mercury Center News Site Moves to Free Subscription

Posted on May 19, 1998

Mercury Center, the online edition of the San Jose Mercury News, announced that it will no longer charge a fee to subscribers. The announcement was made as the news service marked its fifth anniversary.

The first online news provider to deliver the full daily contents of a major American newspaper on a national service, Mercury Center has been an industry leader since its launch in 1993 on America Online. Though its subscriber base was substantial and contributed significantly to site revenue, Mercury Center officials expect the announcement to expand its audience, both in the U.S. and internationally.

"Mercury Center's business model has evolved along with the Web. We're pleased we can now offer our content to readers for free, which will also help set the stage for our next five years of growth," said Bob Ryan, Director of Mercury Center. "Though our customers have proved they are willing to pay a premium for Mercury Center content, the site is in expansion mode; we believe that dropping subscription fees, and other moves that we will announce later this year, will help reinforce our position worldwide as the online news source for Silicon Valley."