New York Times, Axel Springer invest in Dutch pay-per-read company Blendle
The New York Times and the Axel Springer publishing house (Bild and Die Welt) are investing a combined €3m in the Dutch digital publishing start-up Blendle.
Blendle, launched six months ago, allows readers to pay a few cents to read individual newspaper and magazine articles and currently works with some 50 Dutch publications.
Some 130,000 people have a Blendle account – most of them in the 20 to 35 age group. They buy on average five articles a month. Blendle takes 30% of the fee.
Founders Alexander Klöpping and Marten Blankesteijn will retain 75% of the shares, the two foreign publishers 23%.
‘You have to be complete to please the reader,’ Klöpping said in the Financieele Dagblad. ‘Having the weight of Axel Springer and the New York Times behind us is an enormous help to convince other publishers.’
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