In an industry where the concept of 'digital first' is gaining ground, The Boston Globe is launching a three-pronged attack on the world of digital publishing.

The newspaper has just set up a pay-wall on one of its two websites displaying different arrays of digital content, and a web app that doesn't let Apple keep a cut of the profits.

When it first went online, rather than creating a web version of the Boston Globe, the paper established Boston.com, which doesn't just simply publish content from the paper but from other sources too, making it more of a 'community portal', as Joshua Benton of Nieman Lab describes it.

In many ways, The Globe was ahead of the game in establishing this kind of community-centred approach so early on. No one can claim that The Globe isn't engaging with their community and their audience. Plus, this site is free, and as Benton notes, it has been successful.

Creating a website which is not merely a digital recreation of the print experience, but something more, thereby offer two divergent reader experiences in both print and online does, to some extent, highlight the advantages of both formats.

But now the Globe has decided that maybe it does make sense to showcase its print content online.The publication has recently launched BostonGlobe.com, a site that offers more content from the paper to readers based on a subscription service. Questions have been raised on whether the service will work, as readers are so used to obtaining Boston Globe content for free on Boston.com.

Could the BostonGlobe.com pay-wall even harm Boston.com? Only 5 articles per day from the paper will be included on the free site in future, to encourage readers to move towards the subscription site, but this may cause readers to visit the site less frequently and/or stay for a shorter period of time. Obviously, this would bring ad revenues down. The paper, however, believes that its markets are sufficiently different, as Benton notes.

In a further attempt to digitally diversify, the paper has followed the lead of others such as Die Zeit and The Financial Times and has brought out a HTML 5 app that allows subscribers to BostonGlobe.com to access the site on smart-phones and tablets.

The HTML 5 format allows the paper to offer something which looks like an app, fells like an app, but is in fact a website that can re-size and reformat based on whatever device the page is being viewed on. This means that readers can access the site without downloading an app from the iTunes store - meaning Apple don't get to keep that healthy 30% slice of the subscription pie.

The Globe's progress will be interesting for other regional papers to follow. Will its dual-website approach be successful?

Sources: Boston.com (1) , (2) , Bostonglobe.com , Nieman Lab (1) , (2)