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Eugendorf (pte030/02.04.2003/14:22) - The online journalists' portal "Newsroom" http://www.newsroom.de or http://www.newsroom.at , which has been free of charge up to now, will be charging a membership fee starting from 7 April. From this date on, access to the online newsroom will cost one euro per month.
The Oberauer media publishing house that runs the site http://www.oberauer.com said the switch to a cost-bound service had proved a success even before the introduction of the fee. Within twelve hours after the announcement, 502 journalists had signed up for a year's subscription. By mid year, the organizers hope to have 3,000 paying subscribers.
"Of course the fee of one euro per month will only cover our technical costs," said Johann Oberauer, manager of the Oberauer publishing house. He added that, thanks to a self-managing computer system, the administrative costs had been reduced to almost nothing.
The site's organizers say the popularity of the free service prompted them to introduce the fee, as the exploding number of over 20,000 subscribers led to higher technical, data transfer and programming costs. The site is mainly financed by online advertising and job adverts.
In addition to current news, Newsroom offers journalists a comprehensive job databank.
Once the fee has been introduced, Newsroom's services can still be accessed free of cost - but with a delay of 48 hours. Subscriptions can be ordered online by credit card or bank account.
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