Chicago Sun-Times now accepts Bitcoin for subscription payments

The Chicago Sun-Times is now accepting bitcoins as payment for subscription, becoming the first major U.S. newspaper to take the digital currency. The paper’s goal is to keep evolving with changing technology, and accepting bitcoin payments is one way it is trying to stay digitally focused, Editor-in-Chief Jim Kirk said in a release. The Sun-Times has a “digital-first” strategy that led it to experiment with a bitcoin paywall for a one-day period in February.

You can now subscribe to the ninth-largest newspaper in the U.S. using Bitcoin. The Chicago Sun-Times piloted a Bitcoin paywall earlier this year. “Our goal is to keep the Sun-Times current and evolving with changing technology,” editor-in-chief Jim Kirk said in a release. “Accepting bitcoin payments is one of many ways we are working to stay digitally focused.” Josh Metnick, the CTO of Sun-Times parent company Wrapports, said the company is examining expanding Bitcoin payments to other products. “The implications of this extend beyond just ability to process subscriptions — it is the furthering of our BTC processing capabilities such that we can extend it into other content and media products down the line,” he said in an email.