[ NNSquad ] Re: New York Times getting ready to charge online readers

[Richard Bennett <richard@bennett.com>]

Paid content models work well for the financial press, but that may be a 
special case given that people read those papers for investment 
information. The alternative for the Times is targeted advertising, but 
that's more a long term play. The most interesting point is the quip 
about being "the paper of record for the English-speaking world." 
Long-tail fantasies are just that, as the Internet is the great 
aggregator, allowing large enterprises to crush small one without the 
constraint of geography. We have one big retailer, one big auctioneer, 
one big phone company (Skype) , and one big search/advertiser, so why do 
we need more than one big mass-market newspaper?

On 1/17/2010 4:02 PM, Lauren Weinstein wrote:
> New York Times getting ready to charge online readers
>
> http://bit.ly/5bqmTL  (NY Mag)
>
> The problems, of course, are obvious.  The value of referenced NYTimes
> articles in public forums drops essentially to zero -- there's no
> point in linking to articles that most people will be unable to
> read -- legally, that is.
>
> And therein is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  I'd expect to see
> underground free transmissions of NYTimes articles instantly appear in
> a myriad of locations and forms, forcing the Times to play DMCA cop on
> top of everything else in an endless game of Whac-A-Mole.
>
> Will they get enough subscriptions to stay afloat using such a model?
> Maybe.  But will this make up for the loss of global readership in a
> non-economic sense overall, especially for their best reporters and
> analysts who want to be read by the most people possible?  Will an
> op-ed in the Times mean as much if it's also behind a pay wall that
> drastically limits its audience?
>
> The future will tell.  But one thing's for sure, if the Times goes
> ahead with this kind of plan, they're taking one enormous gamble
> indeed, especially in the current economic climate.
>
> --Lauren--
> NNSquad Moderator
>    

--
Richard Bennett
Research Fellow
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Washington, DC