NY Times to web
readers: Let's talk $s
Surveys readers on range of subscription prices
By Diego Vasquez
Jul 10, 2009
The last time the New York Times walled off part of its web site, the experiment lasted only two years.
Now the Times is eyeing the paid content model again, albeit with a
slightly lower price and much more content set to go behind the wall.
The paper sent out an electronic survey to subscribers asking them,
among other things, their feelings on paying $5 per month for access to
its web content.
The paper also floated the idea of a discounted subscription of $2.50
per month for print subscribers, compared to the $7.95 per month price
tag for the old Times Select.
The paper has not said explicitly that it will proceed with the model.
Rather it is gathering information on readers' reaction as it looks for
new revenue streams in the down economy. A pay wall for the entire site
would be one such option.
Times Select made certain content, such as op-ed columns and archives,
accessible only to paid subscribers, but the plan only lasted two years
despite generating a reported $10 million per year.
When Times Select ended in September 2007, the paper essentially
acknowledged that it was more valuable to have a greater number of
readers to sell advertising on than to take in the money for the
premium.
Since then, however, newspapers’ online advertising has followed that
of offline, shrinking in recent quarters and unlikely to rebound
anytime soon. During first quarter, newspapers’ web advertising revenue
was off 13 percent compared to the previous year, according to the
Newspaper Association of America.
New York Times Co. web sites’ advertising has declined the past two
quarters, though that includes Boston.com and About.com as well as
Nytimes.com.
The Times is hardly the only newspaper looking for additional revenue
during this recession, when papers have been especially hard hit.
MediaNews has said it will likely start charging subscribers, while E.W. Scripps and Hearst have also broached the idea.
News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal has charged for its content for years,
and Rupert Murdoch has said that the company’s other newspapers will
likely follow suit.
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