Steve Brill
Former US newspaper executives Steve Brill (pictured) and Gordon Crovitz have sold their company Journalism Online, including its payment platform Press+, to Chicago-based publishing services company RR Donnelley & Sons Co.

The price tag on the deal has not been made public, but paidContent reports that it is in the range of $35 to $45 million (£21.7 to £27.9 million).

Brill, founder of The American Lawyer magazine and Court TV, and Crovitz, a former Wall Street Journal publisher, will stay on at Journalism Online, which they co-founded with Leo Hindery Jr. in April 2009.

In 2010 the company received investment from News Corporation, parent company of the Times and Sky News, which still owns a minority stake.

No News Corporation sites have introduced Press+ since, although a research paper published yesterday by media analyst Claire Enders reports that the Times is planning to shift from its current blanket paywall model to a metered model, which could involve using the Journalism Online system.

Press+ is designed to allow publishers to install metered payment systems around their online content, with a variety of payment options available including day or week passes, print/online bundles, and monthly or annual subscriptions.

Thomas J Quinlan III, RR Donnelley's president and chief executive officer said in a release that Press+ "enhances our offering and opens new avenues for publishers to generate incremental subscription and advertising revenue".

Selling the company on less than two years after it was founded, Brill said that Journalism Online was "delighted to bring Press+'s innovative capabilities to RR Donnelley and look forward to engaging with the broad array of consumer and business-to-business publishers with whom RR Donnelley has relationships".

In August 2010 news agency Global Post became the first organisation to introduce Press+, aiming to monetise its members-only online area Passport.

Later in the year the platform was taken up by a number of US non-profit journalism organisations, including New York-based ProPublica, to encourage donations after the cost for 10 non-profits to use the service was met by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

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