Manchester Confidential lays its subs cards on the table

The team behind Manchester Confidential has moved to clear up any confusion about the portal's upcoming switch to paid subscription, not to mention the differences between its heroes, friends and guests.

As first detailed on How-Do back in October, the lifestyle and city living site is taking a bold move away from its traditionally free to view content and asking its readers to pay for unlimited access to its newly designed site, as created by Planet Code.

This is due to launch "on or around" 15 January.

The site will have three levels of access - one for guests, one for friends and one for heroes.

Guests will be able to view daily news articles and archived material (older restaurant reviews for example), while gaining access to some competitions, offers and give-aways.

Newer articles and reviews will be locked for paying subscribers, before being dropped into the archives, where they can then be viewed by guests that register with Man Con.

Friends, as previously revealed on How-Do, will be expected to pay £60 a year (reduced to £24 if they sign up prior to 20 December) and in return will receive full site access, as well as a range of money saving retail and dining discounts, and priority tickets and invitations to events in the city.

Mark Garner of Manchester Confidential has already ran over the benefits of signing up to be 'a hero', with exclusive discounts, VIP invites and an e-concierge service to help with difficult to obtain bookings.

This costs either £100 a year, £10 a month (with a booking fee) or £30 a quarter (no fee).

In a statement on the site the team explain their 'big ambition': "By building a strong, loyal membership, we can provide an alternative voice and use the muscle of our numbers to get more for our readers. These membership schemes will also help us to compete against the huge publishing empires and the BBC."

www.manchesterconfidential.com

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