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The Toronto Star has launched a metered system for access to the journalism on its website, following in the footsteps of many of its Canadian peers.

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The country’s largest daily newspaper, owned by Torstar Corp., revealed the details of its online paywall Tuesday, several months after announcing it would indeed implement such a system.

Similar to models in place at the three other major English-language publishers, the Star said it would offer readers access to 10 articles for free every 30 days. After that, it will charge $9.99 per month with the first month offered at $0.99.

Home delivery subscribers to the Star‘s print edition who pay through automatic monthly payments will receive free access if they sign up by the end of the year and print subscribers who do not pay automatically each month will be charged $4.99 per month.



In a post on its website Tuesday, the Star also said it would offer certain content — such as access to browsing its homepage and viewing videos — for free.

The Star‘s move comes as publishing companies make drastic changes to their production costs and look for new ways to recoup rapidly declining print advertising dollars.

In a report last October, RBC Capital Markets analyst Haran Posner noted that as the Internet has captured more advertising dollars over the past decade (18% by 2011 up from 1% in 2001 in Canada), the price advertisers are willing to pay is steadily declining due to vast competition and cheap inventory sold through online ad exchanges.