Following a bitcoin paywall trial in February of this year, the Chicago Sun-Times announced on Thursday that they will be accepting bitcoin payments for subscriptions to the newspaper.
The acceptance makes the Sun-Times as the first major newspaper to accept bitcoin.
The publication’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Mr. Jim Kirk says that this particular move is a reflection of the paper’s “digital-first” strategy.
“Our goal is to keep the Sun-Times current and evolving with changing technology,” Kirk said. “Accepting bitcoin payments is one of many ways we are working to stay digitally focused.”
It’s all coming together with an integration with Coinbase, a San Francisco-based bitcoin brokerage that also helps merchants accept bitcoin — allowing them to instantly convert to fiat to minimize volatility risk.
Julian Posada, Sun-Times Executive Vice President of Marketing and Strategy, described the experience of working with Coinbase as pleasant:
“Coinbase seamlessly helped us through the technological integration of accepting bitcoin payments. Their simple process is easy to work with, and we are pleased by how quickly our subscribers could begin paying in bitcoin,” he said.
The Sun-Times has set up a special page for bitcoin subscribers at bitcoin.suntimes.com. Upon accessing the page, the user is prompted for their postal code, at which point in time they’ll have the option of checking out via Coinbase.
Could this set a standard for other online publishers? It certainly may. The Sun-Times is considered to be a well-respected news publication, and this announcement could very well be the start of a new way for newspaper’s to bring in subscribers — especially in this digital age.
