Ireland.com e-mail addresses

Hairy Homer

Rumours abound that the Irish Times are going to start charging for some of the services they currently give away for free. They already charge €30 per year for people who want to use its e-mail service.

As a test of how successful this has been, has anybody here paid for an Ireland.com e-mail address?

Has anyone received in the last year an e-mail from somebody with an @ireland.com e-mail address?

I know I haven't on either count.

Just curious.

dahamsta

Rumours abound that the Irish Times are going to start charging for some of the services they currently give away for free.

It's not a rumour, it's a given. Archives will probably be next. Can't see anyone outside research wanting them, but I can't fault ireland.com for thinking ahead either. The "free net" is on the way out.

As a test of how successful this has been, has anybody here paid for an Ireland.com e-mail address?

*snort*

Has anyone received in the last year an e-mail from somebody with an @ireland.com e-mail address?

Don't think so, no.

adam

gandalf

YepI use the ireland.com email "service".

The only reason I paid for it was because I made it my primary personal address. It was too much of a pain to inform every1 I had changed email again.

Gandalf.

Samson

Originally posted by Hairy Homer
As a test of how successful this has been, has anybody here paid for an Ireland.com e-mail address?

I paid for mine too.
Not because I felt I would get my monies worth (having to pay for free email), but for the same reason as Gandalf, So many people have my ireland.com address and I use it for so much that it would have too much trouble to change.

It galled me fork out the money though (bàstards).

Hairy Homer

Originally posted by Samson


I paid for mine too.
Not because I felt I would get my monies worth (having to pay for free email), but for the same reason as Gandalf, So many people have my ireland.com address and I use it for so much that it would have too much trouble to change.

It galled me fork out the money though (bàstards).

OK so we have two people from the captive market who were effectively coerced into paying in order to keep their existing addresses. But why on earth would a newcomer want to pay for such a service when most people still give it away free?

Similarly with paying for services. The Archive Search is an obvious one but depending on how high they pitch the price they may be doing themselves more harm than good.

Serious professional researchers have always had access to clippings libraries and copyright libraries such as that at Trinity College. Speaking personally, I tend to use the Archive most in conjuction with the Letters page just to see what was the letter published last Monday to which the writer in Friday's edition is responding so vehemently.

I take your point that the 'free' net is unsustainable in its current form, but how it can compete against traditional media if it starts charging unwisely for its services is a mystery.

If ireland.com charges for 'breaking news' how will it compete against radio?
If it charges excessively for archive searches it will drive away its impulsive readers (like me) without really harming the serious researcher, who probably uses the library already.

I still think it's the best Irish information Website. Hope it gets its act together.

Rev Hellfire

I'm not sure what people expect, they are after all in effect giving away a free copy of there product to net users. And they're hardly unique as a business in wanting to make some money out of it.
Remember most orgainisation on the web arent there to to provide you with free non revenue suppling service but rather to make money.

Remember beggars can’t be choosers. Enjoy it while you have and be prepared to put your hand into your pocket.

Krusty_Clown

I sadly surrended some really good e-mail addresses when they changed to their pay-policy..
Manager@ireland.com
Webmaster@ireland.com
inland_revenue@ireland.com
..
.
So, these are up for grabs if anyone wants them..
(although they were getting a lot of junk when I was last using them!)

Hairy Homer

Originally posted by Rev Hellfire
I'm not sure what people expect, they are after all in effect giving away a free copy of there product to net users. And they're hardly unique as a business in wanting to make some money out of it.
Remember most orgainisation on the web arent there to to provide you with free non revenue suppling service but rather to make money.

Remember beggars can’t be choosers. Enjoy it while you have and be prepared to put your hand into your pocket.

Who you callin' a beggar? I continue to buy the Irish Times most days while still occasionally browsing the Website for a quick scan during the day or, as I said before, to look up some reference to an earlier report that appears in today's paper (typically in the letter's section).

The key word I used was 'unwisely'. If they charge 'unwisely' for services that people are happy to get for free elsewhere, their project will end in tears.

Hourly updates? We already have radio.

E-mail addresses? The only compelling reason that I can see is if you already used ireland.com as your principal personal address and didn't want to change it. That's called sweating your installed base; it's not a growth strategy.

I hope they come up with something that I will want to pay for.

Victor

I might be willing to pay for the paper on-line, but only if they put up the whole paper everyday (they have the computer files anyway).

They could even ad the small ad.s if they wanted (text only would be quite efficient).

Victor

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2002/0320/breaking65.htm

'ireland.com' to charge for premium content
Last updated: 20-03-02, 16:22

ireland.com will begin charging for premium content in the summer, it was announced today.

The charge will apply to the premium news service, comprising The Irish Times, the Breaking News service, ireland.com's searchable archive of all online newspaper articles and micro-sites including technology, sport, business and weather.

However a range of free content will remain available, including some material each day from The Irish Times, the Breaking News service, and micro-sites such as Property, Jobs, Explore Ireland, Ancestors, Motors, Fantasy Football and special feature sites covering major events like the World Cup and the General Election.

Final pricing will be confirmed in the coming weeks and it is expected to be in line with similar premium content charges in the international market.

Subscriptions will be available on an annual, monthly or weekly basis to individuals and on an annual basis to corporate clients.

The move follows a growing trend amongst leading content-driven websites all over the world to introduce subscription models for access to content and follows the success of ireland.com's subscription email service, which was launched in January.

Initially launched as The Irish Times on the Web in 1994, The Irish Times was the first newspaper in Ireland or the UK, and among the first 30 in the world, to go online. In 1999 the site was relaunched as ireland.com, and a range of products and services were developed to cater for the Irish and international markets.

ireland.com's business model is now based on advertising, email subscriptions, content syndication and mobile services.

"This is no different to paying for a copy of a newspaper or email alert or a premium TV channel," said Ms Mary Mangan, Chief Operating Officer of ireland.com.

"Now that ireland.com has built significant brand equity and a very loyal customer base, we feel that we are in a good position to charge for our premium services," she added.

Meh

Final pricing will be confirmed in the coming weeks and it is expected to be in line with similar premium content charges in the international market.

Well, the Wall Street Journal charges $59 a year. €70 would definitely be too steep for me...

dahamsta

Too much, too soon.

The Mary Mangan Touch of Death.

adam

davros

I currently pay a small fee (20 euros a year or so) to read a Hong Kong newspaper online. There is no chance of getting my hands on a paper copy in Ireland so I'm happy to cough up.

Same goes for the Irish Times. I am sure (having been in this position myself) that they have a sizeable readership abroad who can only read it online. They will pay. In fact, back in 1996, the Irish Times charged £50 for an email version, along with a fetch mechanism to get full articles. I happily paid for that too.

Victor

Originally posted by dahamsta
Too much, too soon. The Mary Mangan Touch of Death.

Who? What?

zenith

... my reading of the situation is that there's a big q of people behind Ireland.com waiting to charge.

That's not to say that they'll charge, but we're all mad curious as to how ireland.com will get on.

Personally, I'd pay for The Onion, I'd pay for my local paper, and the rest can go swing.

Hairy Homer

Originally posted by dahamsta
Too much, too soon.

The Mary Mangan Touch of Death.

adam

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

Ahem.

(Compose myself. Put on straight face.)

You might think that. I couldn't possibly comment.