Maybe Information Does Want To Be Free - To Run Ads
New York Times Opens Access To Web Site
The New York Times no longer charges for those portions of its web site and archives that were formerly by subscription only.1
This move marks the demise of the two year old TimesSelect project, which levied a charge of $49.95 a year or $7.95 a month for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives.2
This change is significant not only for the reduction in frustration for folks like me who have spent the past 24 months inadvertently clicking on a provocative headline3 only to be confronted with the TimesSelect stop sign but also because of the reasons for this decision and their implications for media in general.
The Economics of Newspapers
The TimesSelect project was not, according to the Times, an abysmal fiscal flop. It “met expectations” (whatever that means) and, more to the point, drew 227,000 paying subscribers, thus generating about $10 million a year in revenue.
The problem for the hybrid subscription model implemented by the Times was that it ran into the Googlenomics model - i.e., massive numbers of readers were directed to the New York Times site from Google, other search engines, and links on other sites, overwhelming the number who arrived at www.nytimes.com directly.4 Denying those search-engine directed users access meant The Times was missing an opportunity for more page views and, in turn, increased advertising revenue.
Is The Wall Street Journal Next?
With the online New York Times now fully accessible without a subscription, the only large American newspapers that still charges for access to most of its Web site is The Wall Street Journal. The Journal’s almost one million paying online readers chip in about $65 million annually for the privilege.
Nonetheless, according to the Times, “Dow Jones and the company that is about to take it over, the News Corporation, are discussing whether to continue that practice, according to people briefed on those talks. Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman, has talked of the possibility of making access to The Journal free online.”
The official story of the change to free access at the New York Times web site is, of course, reported in the “Media & Advertising” pages of the Times itself and can be found at Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site.5
Footnotes
- While the announcement that the New York Times stopped charging for access to parts of its Web site was made just over a week ago (years ago in Internet time), my recent email indicates that at least a few folks haven’t heard the word. This is such good - and important news that its mention here seemed mandated.↩
- The Times now makes its archives from 1987 to the present available without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There are charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.↩
- One wonders if those teasers will be as tempting without the the allure of limited access↩
- This phenomenon is not limited to The New York Times and other journalistic giants. Heck of a Guy viewers from search engines and links on other sites outnumber those who arrive here directly by 20 to 1.↩
- The numbers and hard data for this posting were drawn from this New York Times article.↩
2 responses so far ↓
1 anjani // Sep 26, 2007 at 6:52 pm
I find it interesting that everytime I came to the TimesSelect stop sign, I’d ask myself, “Guess I don’t REALLY need to know about that now, do I?”
And I’d turn around and harumph outta there. Everyone else must have done the same thing.
2 ben // Sep 26, 2007 at 10:44 pm
They’re wantin all but your mom’s madin name to log in though.