The Cape Cod Times will stop home delivery to subscribers on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket after Sunday, April 5, member services director Robert Sypek confirmed yesterday.

The decision will affect about 250 paying customers, about 140 on the Vineyard. The Times will reimburse payments made on subscriptions scheduled to extend beyond the cutoff.

An electronic version of the daily newspaper will be available free to stranded subscribers on a trial basis; after 45 days, the Times will charge $4.99 a month to access the online replica. It will differ from the Times Web site, which is available free; the electronic edition, essentially a printable version of the newsprint product, will allow subscribers free access to 30 days’ archives.

The Times already ceased sending print versions of the newspaper to schools, citing the expense of newsprint as second only to staff pay in the Times’ budget.

Mr. Sypek called delivering the Times to the Islands a losing proposition. “On every newspaper you deliver you’re losing money,” he said, adding that the real cost of a Times on Island doorsteps was triple the cover price.