The Times starts charging for archive access

From next month users of The Times and The Sunday Times online will be charged for access to the papers' archives.

In the next step towards making its online services pay, the Times Newspapers Group will limit the existing free archive service and charge an as yet undisclosed fee for access to its full back catalogue.

The Times Newspapers Online hopes to attract premium users by adding extra material from the two papers' internal digital archive dating back to 1985 - the current site only provides searchable material back to 1996.

Katie Vanneck, publisher of The Times Newspapers Online, said a second phase of development could widen the archive's content to include articles from other News International titles like The Sun and The News of the World.

There may also be future plans to add content from rival publications in the archive: "It would be fantastic if down the line some of our competitors joined the ranks, but that's still a long way off," admitted Vanneck.

The papers began the move towards online charges in August, when silicon.com revealed The Times would begin charging users £10 per year to compete in its online crossword competitions.

The paper was aiming to convince 10 per cent of its crossword devotees to sign up for the premium service, an aim which Vanneck said had already been exceeded.

"So far 13 per cent have moved to crossword subscription and they're continuing to sign up," she said.

"We needed to prove - as much internally as externally - that this is the way to go."

As part of the move the online operations of The Times and The Sunday Times will be merged. Details of the re-organisation are still thin on the ground, but several jobs are expected to be lost.

"Having one team that can have access to content from both papers makes sense. It makes us quicker to market and it's easier for consumers," said Vanneck.

The division will be headed by online editorial director Keith Blackmore, who will be given responsibility to identify and develop other areas of the sites where charges can be introduced.