MELBOURNE, Florida — Florida Today announced today that its online “open house” has ended and that viewers will now be prompted to buy a subscription to view additional news stories each day.
The change from a free online news paper to a paid subscription model comes on the heels of Florida Today raising its rate for a Sunday newspaper to $3.00.
Meanwhile, BrevardTimes.com has seen rapid growth in its viewers to over 350k per month since its inception less than a year ago.
Florida Today’s parent company Gannett Co., Inc., has experienced a loss of advertising revenue ever since the beginning of the 2008 financial collapse.
Gannett had implemented a series of layoffs last year and is in the process of offering buyouts to some senior employees.
Gannett’s stock price improved after the round of layoff last year and closed yesterday at $15.61 per share.
Florida Today has been Brevard County’s main local news source for over 40 years, covering Titusville, Merritt Island, Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, Palm Bay, and other Brevard County communities on Florida’s Space Coast.
UPDATE: After running with the story at 7 a.m. today and receiving negative comments, Florida Today re-ran the story with comments disabled at 10 a.m. However, you can feel free to leave your comments below, no signup is necessary to comment on Brevard Times.
SECOND UPDATE; It appears the comments on the second article were turned on around noon.