Major British b2b publisher to charge for most of its content, starting this fall

A major British b2b publisher is going to charge users for access to "significant parts" of its websites, starting this fall. Emap Inform's CEO Simon Middleboe told the Press Gazette that the company would be moving back towards a pay-for-content model. There will still be some free access content, but much less.

"We are in the process of building all the bits of technology in Abacus [Emap's content management system provider] to allow us to put subscription barriers in. We won't be able to bring in subscriptions until the autumn."

Emap Inform, which is jointly owned by a private equity firm and the Guardian Media Group, publishes 10 b2b titles, including Retail Week, Local Government Chronicle and Broadcast.

In May, at the World Magazine Congress, GMG chief executive Carolyn McCall said:

"More people are looking seriously at how they can make money charging for content that costs a lot of money to make.

"I don't think we will be doing much content online in B2B unless we get money for it."