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End to free bite out of Apple

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From July 1, overseas readers of online versions of Apple Daily , EasyFinder , Sudden Weekly and Eat & Travel Weekly will lose free content.

Next Media, the company behind those titles, said yesterday readers outside Hong Kong would have to pay a HK$24 monthly subscription to access www.atnext.com, the company's portal.

'We believe our leadership position, with an average 4.5 million page views per day and more than 140,000 unique registered daily users, together with our dedication to providing quality online content, will allow atnext.com to move successfully into this new revenue stream,' said chief executive Pieter Schats.

Hong Kong users will get the sites free, and the eight lifestyle sections will remain free for all users.

'The subscription model lays the foundations for our plans to further enrich the portal's content, and provide an even more diverse range of news and lifestyle information for the entire global online Chinese community. It also allows us to test overseas subscription interest without penalising local users and customers,' Mr Schats said.

The online version of Next Magazine has been operating on subscription since 1996. Apple Racing , another pay-to-view site, will maintain its separate subscription plan.

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