Is the so-called "pay wall" doomed?
It's good news, if you're a reader, but maybe bad news if you're a publisher who had hoped for an additional stream of revenue. The "pay wall" at the New York Times that restricted access to some content -- principally the paper's marquee columnists -- may soon fall.
[UPDATE: A story in Advertising Age reports that other pillars of paid online news are falling or have fallen: The Economist and CNN and probably soon the Wall Street Journal.]
Times Select, the paid subscription service of the New York Times, is about to be discontinued, according to a story in Online Media Daily. The likelihood is that readers worldwide will soon once again have access to columns by Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman as the Times comes, reluctantly, the conclusion that the important thing is building audience and getting its revenue from advertisers eager to reach these readers.
Uptake of the US$49.95 subscriptions has been about 225,000 web-exclusive subscribers (another half million print subscribers have chose to access it for free).
Some Canadian publishers, like the National Post, are still holding out, but others -- including regional dailies published by Torstar -- have now given up trying to restrict access only to those who pay a premium. What has happened are two things: readers have worked around the wall; or they have simply refused to pay. In either case, the revenue projections have turned out to be illusory.
The challenge is that the content that readers are getting for free isn't free. Publishers now must concentrate on measurable linkages with readers so that they can sell advertising.
[UPDATE: A story in Advertising Age reports that other pillars of paid online news are falling or have fallen: The Economist and CNN and probably soon the Wall Street Journal.]
Times Select, the paid subscription service of the New York Times, is about to be discontinued, according to a story in Online Media Daily. The likelihood is that readers worldwide will soon once again have access to columns by Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman as the Times comes, reluctantly, the conclusion that the important thing is building audience and getting its revenue from advertisers eager to reach these readers.
Uptake of the US$49.95 subscriptions has been about 225,000 web-exclusive subscribers (another half million print subscribers have chose to access it for free).
Some Canadian publishers, like the National Post, are still holding out, but others -- including regional dailies published by Torstar -- have now given up trying to restrict access only to those who pay a premium. What has happened are two things: readers have worked around the wall; or they have simply refused to pay. In either case, the revenue projections have turned out to be illusory.
The challenge is that the content that readers are getting for free isn't free. Publishers now must concentrate on measurable linkages with readers so that they can sell advertising.
posted by D. B. Scott at
9:30 am
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