Disney's Toontown, its virtual world aimed at kids, has earned its dollars primarily from subscriptions. Now, however, Disney will be shifting Toontown towards an advertising-supported model.

Since its 2003 launch, Toontown users have paid a monthly subscription fee of $9.95 (after a free trial)-- though a free public beta was launched late in May. Apparently the free beta was a useful draw-- Disney execs said they noticed increased user response, and Disney now says it's talking to advertisers in preparation for the launch of an entirely ad-supported version of Toontown.

One primary goal, of course, is making Toontown accessible to a broader userbase. "We've had such a great success with Toontown that we wanted to make a portion of the game accessible to even more people, which will take our Tooniverse to new heights, beyond the more than 17.5 million Toons that have already been created in the game," said Paul Yanover, Disney Online Executive VP and Managing Director.

Another likely motivation for the shift, along with growing interest from advertisers in virtual worlds, could be increased competition from other kid-focused worlds like Club Penguin and Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis-- the latter's userbase is pegged by comScore at 1.4 million unique users as of May, trumping Toontown's 1.165 million. Nicktropolis has said it will eventually feature advertising, too.

[Via MediaWeek]