Veteran political blogger Andrew Sullivan leaves Daily Beast to relaunch blog as subscription-based and ad free

Andrew Sullivan, the veteran political blogger is leaving the Daily Beast in order relaunch his blog as an independent subscription-based site.

Sullivan's popular blog, The Dish, will use a 'leaky meter' model, which will give readers a number of free page views before requiring them to sign-up for an annual subscription.

It will revert to the address andrewsullivan.com from 1 February.

Sullivan has also announced he will not be running any adverts on the new site, relying purely on revenue from subscriptions.

Speaking to TechCrunch the blogger said he had already received subscription rates into six figures.

The prolific writer, who built up his following for his blog, “The Dish” first at the TheAtlantic.com and then at the Daily Beast, said he plans to charge users $19.99 to view the site.

The move will be seen as another move away from free content models for online journalism and towards a paid-for access approach.

Sullivan told TechCrunch he was taking a stand against advertising based models because: “You find yourself trying to create pageviews that don’t really have any editorial basis.”

Sullivan will relaunch the blog at the beginning of April and introduce the meter at the same time using technology from a startup tech company called Tinypass.