In recent weeks, we may have given the impression that we were going to end free access to the site, and start charging an annual subscription fee. As indeed we were. But it seems we underestimated the reluctance of the majority of our readers to start paying for something you have previously enjoyed for free.
So the good news, for our readers at least, is that it’s business as usual. No annual subscription, free access, and perhaps a more concerted effort on our part to monetise the site in other ways.
So call it an embarrassing climbdown or a reality check as you prefer, but we have no regrets about trying to move to site to a subscription model. As we said when we announced the plan, it would have given us more time to devote to the site and enabled us to go both broader and deeper. Equally, we have no regrets about backtracking. If there’s one thing we’ve learned talking to companies in the mobile space, it is that the business model you start out with isn’t always the one you end up with, certainly not if it means losing most of your audience. And the exercise has not been completely futile. It’s led to some discussions about various other projects, at least two of which look like they might have legs.
In making this announcement, we would like to thank those individuals and companies who did take out a subscription, and of course to reassure them that their subscription fees will be refunded. In fact, until we saw how things panned out, we left the cheques unbanked, but those companies that made a direct payment to our bank account will be reimbursed. 
And in the meantime, we’ll be here doing what we’ve been doing for the last three and a half years. We hope you enjoy our continued coverage of the global mobile marketing scene.

David Murphy
Editor