We’re celebrating 10 years of WELTplus – and giving you a gift

media On my own account

We’re celebrating 10 years of WELTplus – and giving you a gift

Stand: 09.12.2022 | Reading time: 3 minutes

Source: Montage: Infographic WELT/Anna Wagner

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Our best: WELTplus, the subscription offer for WELT Digital readers, started 10 years ago. Laughed at and criticized at the time, we have now gained more than 210,000 digital subscribers. We say thank you! – and make an offer to everyone who isn’t there yet.

Dhe process seemed so important that the largest news agency in Germany, the dpa, not only brought a message to it. That’s what it said under the headline “Die Welt” sets up a payment barrier on the Internet:

“Die Welt” is the first of the major news sites in Germany to launch an online payment model. “The world belongs to everyone to whom it is worth something,” said the editor-in-chief of the Welt Group, Jan-Eric Peters, explaining the step, which met with approval but also criticism on the Internet.

And further:

Advocates of the “Welt” payment model praised the publisher for playing a pioneering role in Germany in building sales revenues for valuable content on the Internet. Critics referred to the range losses that came with the introduction of a payment barrier. In addition, the technical hurdles of the “paywall” are easy for network users to circumvent, so that commercial success will be kept within narrow limits.

And because this was a new topic for Germany, the dpa sent an explanatory article afterwards. The excitement was also great in our publishing house:

Source: Martin UK Lengemann

The entire Axel Springer Executive Board (the gentlemen with ties) and members of the WELT editor-in-chief (the gentlemen without ties) were there when the author of these lines ticked the decisive box on his computer on December 12, 2012 at 12:12 p.m. and pressed the enter key. Why did we choose this date? I do not know it anymore.

In any case, it was clear to us early on that quality journalism on the Internet cannot be financed in the long term with the help of advertising alone, that we need sales revenues as a second major source of income. We were aware of the risk of loss of reach, but carried the thought that an even stronger focus on reader needs in our day-to-day work would compensate for this. And so it happened.

Today we are very proud that we have more than 210,000 digital subscribers who support our journalism and for whom, according to the usage figures, our news reporting is most important. At the same time – here, too, the figures on usage behavior are clear – they appreciate special journalistic achievements, both small and large, from original, exciting derivations from the current situation to unique texts, such as this one, which we published for a sad reason and the one we have published to this day is the article that has received the most subscriptions by far. It is the last text by the author and artist Carl Jakob Haupt, who was already seriously ill at the time:

Read the text by Carl Jakob Haupt here:

A great love, an early death

WELT readers particularly appreciate any kind of life support. For example, when business editor Frank Stocker deals with the topic of pensions:

Read the text by Frank Stocker here:

Of course – we also see that with the dear colleagues from the competition from Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt/Main – relationship issues are very popular at any time of the year. This text by Christian Wolf is one of the most popular among subscribers:

Read the text by Christian Wolf here:

And our columnists! Anna Schneider, Alan Posener, Kristina Schröder, Henryk M. Broder and Don Alphonso are just a few examples. This is the first article Don Alphonso wrote on WELT:

Read Don Alphonso’s text here:

Bourgeoisie in Fear & Defensive

Our Bundesliga coverage has been an important part of the WELTplus offer for the past year and a half. Immediately (!) after the end of the game in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga, we offer our subscribers an exclusive video summary with the most important scenes. This will not come as a surprise to football fans: the most viewed football video this year was the summary of the game Dortmund – Bayern (2:2).

For the 10th anniversary of WELTplus, we have come up with a small campaign that might be of interest to you if you do not yet have a WELTplus subscription:

WELTplus turns 10 years old. Celebrate with us!

The best of us – at our best price: Save up to 55 percent for a year with WELTplus Premium and take part in the exclusive iPad competition. All details can be found here.

Source: WORLD

Here’s to the next 10 years with WELTplus!

Her

Oliver Michalsky

Editor-in-Chief WELT Digital