FT.com, the online news site of British broadsheet newspaper the Financial Times, is considering the launch of a new online newsletter - for a subscription fee of up to £15,000 (pounds sterling) per year.

Chief online officer Zach Leonard, speaking at the Interactive Media Conference in London last week, said the target audience for the first issue would probably be investment banks.

Mr Leonard said specialist newsletters could strike at the heart of the trade industry and hit at the FT's stateside rival, WSJ.com.

"If we do something really robust that's written especially for the web, from the desk of our chief economics commentator, and you couple that with lots of archived material, you can charge for it," he said.

FT.com reached the 55,000 subscriber mark last week, and is about to celebrate its one-year 'subscription anniversary'. It recently made its Europe, US and Asian editions responsible for their own revenues, with a specific subscriber target for each of those regions.

Meanwhile, Economist.com claims it has taken the concept of 'content sponsorship' further than any other online title.

Mike Seery, the chief technical officer of The Economist Group, said at the conference that its site has different levels of sponsorship, where registered users are invited to view otherwise premium content. It offers the $69 annual subscription free to qualified users who would be willing to give their email, and other personal details, to the sponsor, Oracle.

The technology company, in turn, will send out email adverts and other offers to these subscribers.

If somebody already has a paid subscription or a sponsored subscription, they can give the new sponsored subscription to a friend, or add it to their already existing subscription. The site, which is due to make a profit this financial year, will retain some free sections.

Sources:
http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/cat_conferences.shtml
http://news.ft.com/comment/columnists/martinwolf
http://www.paidcontent.org/interviews/econo1.html