Times online claims to have 105,000 paying readers

Nearly 105,000 customers are paying for a monthly subscription to access The Times or Sunday Times content online, the UK arm of News Corporation has said. There are also 100,000 print subscribers to The Times who have activated their free digital accounts, it said.

Analysts say the figures provide an early indication of the number of people that are prepared to pay to read general news content online. They add that the numbers would be closely scrutinised by rival newspaper groups.

News International is the UK's first generalist newspaper group to provide online content at a price.

According to Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, the start was encouraging, while, according to James Harding, the editor of The Times, who spoke on the Today programme, it was the first time in more than 200 years that a paper had managed to get paid for a format other than print.
 
News International did not reveal the number of subscribers from the 105,000 who had paid for the more expensive iPad app, or to read the papers on Amazon's Kindle.
 
Around half the subscribers are making monthly payments - £8 for the website or £9.99 for the iPad app while the rest are paying £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week.

This is the first time News Corp has revealed reader figures since the launch of the paid-for websites in early July.

According to the Financial Times, paying niche audiences offer more valuable prospects for advertisers than visitors who do not subscribe and find articles from search engines such as Google.