NY Times (NYT) already failed once trying to charge for online content. Now it looks like it’s going to try the same mistake again.
NY Observer has the details, but the Times is essentially considering two strategies: one is similar to the Financial Times in which a certain amount of content is free and everything after that limit requires a paid subscription. The second option leaves Web content free, but paid “members” are given access to merchandise, Times events and other goodies. From the Observer:
In this model, readers pledge money to the site and are invited into a “New York Times community.” You write a check, you get a baseball cap or a T-shirt (if it’s like Channel Thirteen, a tote bag!), an invite to a Times event, or perhaps, like The Economist, access to specialized content on the Web. [Executive editor Bill Keller] said he wouldn’t even be opposed to offering a donor access to a Page One editorial meeting as long as it doesn’t affect the paper competitively.
A decision is expected by the end of June, but it could take weeks or even months for the software to be developed and implemented.
BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis is appalled that the Times would consider putting a meter on usage of its web content.
“They’ve spent the last 15 years trying to get people to stay longer and read more on their site and now they’re going to penalize their best customers?” he says.
Jarvis has been a frequent critic of online subscription models, but with more companies openly considering putting web content behind a pay wall, he’s getting more frustrated and believes it’ll only be more destructive for the newspaper industry.
“The rush to charging is also getting sadder and sadder,” he says. “It’s like watching a grandmother who has run out of money and so, to afford the drugs she needs to save her life, is looking around the attic for any heirloom she can sell on the corner.”
Peter Kafka at MediaMemo notes the Times made $10 million a year from its Times Select experiment a few years ago.
“The problem is that the paper now needs more than $10 million a year to counter its disintegrating print business,” he says. “Hard to see either of the above two strategies panning out, but well worth trying.”
