CNN to Start Charging Some Online Readers to View Content

CNN has announced it is in the process of starting to charge some people who come to their website for news and information.

As of this week, the brand will begin asking users to pay $3.99 a month to access content at CNN.com. There's also an annual subscription option available for $29.99 a year.

Prior to this, there was no charge to access content on the website. The change was announced publicly on CNN.com on Oct. 1 and via an internal company memo sometime during the summer months.

Which Users Won't Have To Pay?

For now, there is no indication that CNN.com will completely go behind a paywall that requires ever user to pay for content.

"The average visitor to CNN's website, who may only read a few articles a month, will not be prompted to pay at this time," a CNN.com article on the change stated.

Those who choose to pay the subscription fee will receive:

• Unlimited access to articles
• FlashDocs Streaming Library
• Interactive Road to 270 map
• Subscriber-only articles
• Fewer ads on the website

What is included in the subscription was noted as being part of the "preliminary form" of CNN's plan to charge online readers. CNN said it will look to increase subscription offerings in the future.

In both CNN's announcement and a FAQ section on their website, there is no clear indication of how many articles can be read before the user is required to pay for a subscription. It is only listed as "a limited number of articles for free."

How Popular Is CNN's Website?

CNN's move to require a subscription for some content comes at an opportune time for the website as it looks to diversify its income. The subscription is being required of both those who have CNN's broadcast channel and those who just view content on the website.

According to Semrush.com, a service that measure traffic on websites across the globe, CNN's website ranked 52nd worldwide in terms of total visits through August. In the U.S., it is ranked the 17th most visited website.

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The same data shows CNN's closest competitors among news websites in August were the New York Time and Fox News. CNN is listed as having 564 million visits compared to 503 million for the New York Times and 372 million for Fox News.

While both the New York Times and Fox News websites had fewer visits, the people on the site viewed more pages of information once they were there. CNN users averaged 1.96 pages per visit compared to 2.32 for the New York Times and 2.85 for Fox News.