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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Media / Tech The New York Times Is Building a Paywall

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 12:58 PM

Read all about it in the New York Times while you still can, you moocher:

The New York Times rolled out a plan on Thursday to begin charging the most frequent users of its Web site $15 a month in a bet that readers will pay for news they have grown accustomed to getting free.

Beginning March 28, visitors to NYTimes.com will be able to read 20 articles a month without paying, a limit that company executives said was intended to draw in subscription revenue from the most loyal readers while not driving away the casual visitors who make up a vast majority of the site’s traffic.

Sounds like there will be a bunch of ways to beat the paywall, though, as you will still be able to access full articles through links on Twitter and Facebook even if you've passed your 20-articles-a-month limit. TechCrunch points out that the Times is discriminating against certain devices with their new tiered payment plan. If you access the paper through a cell phone app, you pay $15 a month, but if you're on a tablet, it's $20. I hope there's some research to back this up, that tablet users are less likely to click through on ads or something like that. Otherwise, that's just stupid.

 

Comments (7) RSS

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1
Didn't they already try this once? Didn't it fail?
Posted by cat & beard on March 17, 2011 at 2:28 PM · Report
2
If it was the same content, then you can call it "discriminating"...but the tablet apps provide a more interactive experience, with integrated video etc., while the smartphone apps don't. Personally, if I was a subscriber for the smartphone plan, I would be annoyed if the tablet folks were getting more for their money than I was...
Posted by DeepCerulean on March 17, 2011 at 2:29 PM · Report
3
Now it is easy for other firms to reap the "apple tax" now that apps can read your phone type, where you are located, and where else you shop. The easiest place to see this is on the travel sites where there is at least a $100 spread on you trip quoted from a safari browser versus foxfire.

That nice little pink paper the Financial Times is still $99 per year on my front porch every day and it includes the web version.
Posted by Rosy on March 17, 2011 at 6:23 PM · Report
4
Well, I know what I wont be reading online for much longer.
Posted by Never Alone on March 17, 2011 at 6:59 PM · Report
5
No. Farewell, NYT! We had a good run, more or less.

Somehow I expect I won't miss you much.
Posted by danceswithanxiety on March 17, 2011 at 7:44 PM · Report
6
If you build it, they will go.
Posted by Todd Mecklem on March 18, 2011 at 6:56 AM · Report
7
I, for one, am looking forward to blissful ignorance.
Posted by Ovidius on March 18, 2011 at 12:39 PM · Report

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