This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Media How's that Paywall Workin' Out for Ya?
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 1:44 PM
In the midst of a deteriorating advertising climate, The New York Times plans to eliminate up to 20 newsroom positions and seek additional savings in the business units, the company said Thursday. [...]Over the summer The Times Company had anticipated a roughly four percent decrease in advertising revenue in the third quarter, in line with the second quarter. But Ms. Robinson said last month that the company now expected to report a roughly eight percent decline. Notably, online ad revenue is expected to drop about 2 to 3 percent, after rising 2.6 percent in the second quarter.
1
If I hit the paywall when I see an article I want to read, I just google the headline and click the link. NYT are swimming against the current. You don't pay for news through the computer, and if you try to force people to, they'll either find a way around it or find the same information elsewhere.
2
I've watched carefully since NYT began its paywall, and I have not yet encountered any 'content' that (a) I was blocked from seeing for free (if only because I hadn't reached my quota or whatever) or (b) was compelling enough to pay for.
I find it uncanny how 'content' that goes from free to fee-based never seems to drop the number of ads it shovels into your face. This isn't just the internets. Because I am something like 87 years old, I remember when cable tee-vee first popped onto the scene and a big part of the hype -- justified for the first, oh, hour and a half -- was that it was ad-free. Now try to make it through the last 20 minutes of a movie on TNT without wanting to slash someone's wrists over the constant interruptions from blaring ads.
In short, get off my lawn.
I find it uncanny how 'content' that goes from free to fee-based never seems to drop the number of ads it shovels into your face. This isn't just the internets. Because I am something like 87 years old, I remember when cable tee-vee first popped onto the scene and a big part of the hype -- justified for the first, oh, hour and a half -- was that it was ad-free. Now try to make it through the last 20 minutes of a movie on TNT without wanting to slash someone's wrists over the constant interruptions from blaring ads.
In short, get off my lawn.
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