The NewYork Times rips down the Wall
The NY Times will take down that annoying “you must login” to view this article. A similar announcement was made by the Wall Street Journal too. I think it’s likely that the rest of the news and magazine industry will follow their example and begin opening their gates for public consumption. Quite honestly, with their content being free and open, their materials are more likely to be referenced in blogs (just like this one) and they should be able to sell much, much, much more advertising.
ReportonBusiness.com says, “The Times figures it can more than replace the $10-million (U.S.) in subscriber revenue it generates each year with ad dollars from the increased traffic. And if the Journal follows, it will be betting that the profit from boosting its audience will exceed the industry-leading subscriber list it has amassed, with close to one million registered users.”
“…Internet advertising has become too powerful and too lucrative to block non-subscribers from your website, executives across the newspaper industry have told analysts and investors.”
Exciting!
September 27th, 2007 at 6:17 am
I think the Times is doing the right thing. Users are getting used to an environment where they pay for their Internet connections, and then the rest of it is kind of like water, it just comes through the tap. The Internet is like a utility and people don’t want to pay for it, but they will accept advertising.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Brian,
It only makes the most sense to me that the Times and the WSJ will make much more money by having more real estate for little ads. I don’t think subscribers really care if non-payers can see all the articles for free. People probably buy the paper version for their trip on the commute in the train.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:24 am
Excellent blog, excellent post.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:27 am
Offering free content is one thing, but for large papers, selling access to their archive is a lucrative business, with databases, governments and businesses spending millions a year to tap into libraries of past articles. I was very surprised by the New York Times’ decision.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
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March 4th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Interesting post. I am of same opinion with what the poster said.