The New York Time will charge for online news

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Written by Frank R | 20 January 2010
Posted in SOMM Blogs - General Blogs


Starting next year The New York Times will start charging readers for online articles. The New York Times is one of many newspapers trying to find new revenue after print subscriptions and advertising sales fall. On Wednesday, The New York Times Company said it will use a “metered model” which charges readers for access after they’ve read a number of articles each month. Subscribers to The New York Times newspaper will get free access to the website.
 
As one of the larger printed newspapers co this news marks a major shift in moving from free to paid content online. In the middle is a heated debate on whether content producers can continue to survive while offering their content for free online or risk losing readers by charging for content thus in turn lose advertising dollars. This move by The New York Times is not its first attempt at trying to charge its readers for content. Their first program was called TimeSelect which blocked some of its offerings for subscribers only. The NYT ended TimeSelect after the program failed to live up to its expectations.
 

A Debate that will decide the future

 
Last year I wrote an editorial column about five ways for the newspaper companies to modernize their businesses. The column deeply applies to this news from The New York Times. Whereas The New York Times competed with several local newspapers in the offline world, the online arena forces us all to compete globally.
 
Penmanship and a diversify team of writers matters to both the online and offline worlds, but the truth is that while I may enjoy the news posed by one writer for The New York Times and maybe even be willing to cough up a few dollars each months to subscribe to their website, five other readers will choose to get that news somewhere else for free. My penmanship may not rival those of the columnists that the NYT currently employs but I wouldn’t dare charge for news even if my skills were of the caliber of Shakespeare.
 
The main question still remains, can online paid-content be viable as a business revenue source? For most companies it comes down to the dollars and cents. A metered approach is one good way of offering your readers free content while giving them a small push into paying to for limitless access. Some companies are looking to the eReader market for help and if Apple’s rumored “iSlate” is anything like the rumors claim it will be, the NYT and others will have another market but that market will have its own limitations like dogmatic DRM.
 
Will The New York Times metered program works? Time will certainly tell. New Corp’s Wall Street Journal – WSJ.com - currently enjoys 1 million paid subscribers. The New York Times website receives about 20 million unique visitors each month and once they have rolled out the metered program, I expect that number to be halved. Nevertheless the future does look bright; Apple will probably raise the bar in terms of eReaders and maybe, just maybe do for the literary industry what they have done for the music industry. Here’s hoping.
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