Dutch online start-up gets boost from NYT, Axel Springer

Media heavyweights The New York Times and German media group Axel Springer have given small Dutch online start-up Blendle a three-million-euro boost to speed up the rollout of its pay-for-journalism model, Blendle announced on Monday.

"We're happy to announce that our ... start-up Blendle received three million euros ($3.8 million) from Axel Springer Digital Ventures and The New York Times Company to accelerate our growth plans," a statement said.

Launched in April, Blendle is a so-called "digital kiosk" which enables its registered users to pay only for individual news articles they want to read, sharing the profit with the newspaper or magazine to which the article belongs.

Founded by two young Dutch ex-journalists, Blendle charges US20 cents on average per article. The price per newspaper or magazine article is set by the publisher and the revenue is split 70:30 between the publisher and Blendle.

So far, all major Dutch newspapers and magazines have signed up and Blendle already has 130,000 subscribers. It plans to roll out its service to several European countries within the next two years.

"We are truly honoured that two of the world's most influential publishers show so much trust in us," Blendle's chief executive Alexander Klopping said.

Publishers have seen a severe slash in circulation and profits in recent years as paid-for printed news articles becomes freely available online.

Major publishers are looking for new "paywall" models to get readers to pay for content and generate profits lost by print, but until now with limited success.