Canada's largest newspaper publisher, Postmedia Network, is to to put up paywalls at all its 38 daily and community newspapers across the country.

It suggests that its "metered model" experiment, which began in May at the websites of the Montreal Gazette and the Victoria Times-Colonist, has proved successful.

It gives online readers a limited number of free articles before prompting them to pay for access.

Chief executive officer Paul Godfrey said: "The numbers [of paid readers] are growing. They're growing slowly, but they're going in the right direction."

Postmedia, which publishes the National Post, based its experiment on the one pioneered by the New York Times (and, in the UK, by the Financial Times).

Godfrey's main focus at Postmedia - the company formed out of the former print assets of CanWest - has been on developing a digital strategy.

He believes cost-cutting initiatives are over, and the coming year will be devoted to generating online revenue.

Source: Globe&Mail