New York Times Paywall

The New York Times Paywall

The New York Times is a leading global multimedia news and information company whose core purpose is enhancing society by creating, collecting and distributing high quality news, information and entertainment. In 2011, they had revenues of $2.3 billion and an operating profit of $57 million; but, subscriptions and revenues had steadily declined over the years. Advertising revenues were down by over 6% and operating profit were 76% less than the previous year. All this is due to the rise of the internet. The Pew Research Center reported that the number two source for news after television, was the internet ; ahead of newspaper and radio. The Times made an early attempt to attack the digital medium in 1996 when they launched their website and charged $35/month for access. In 2005, they introduced TimeSelect. In this program they charged $49.95 for yearly access to noted columnists. Within two years paid subscribers numbers grew to 227,000. However, the program received widespread criticism and was ended two years later. On March 28, 2011, The Times became a restricted site implementing a paywall program the restricted the site for users who exceeded the allotted “free quota” of 20 articles for a month and directed these users to a page where they could purchase a digital subscription. The new paywall does have unique details, such as a device specific offer. The homepage and all section front pages were free to all users at all times, but for the iPhone and iPad apps, the “Top News” was free and all other content was placed behind the paywall. There is a loophole in The Times paywall; it accommodates user who link to the site via social networks and search engines. Early results of the paywall report 390,000 paid subscribers for the new digital initiative and almost 70% of the print subscribers registered for digital access.

1. I think the paywall will work for the time being but not as a long term solution to for The Times. The initial...