The New York Times announced today that it intends to charge readers for frequent access to its website, starting in early 2011.
Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the newspaper’s print edition will receive full access to the site without extra charge.
What exactly the NY Times considers “frequent,” and how much they will charge, not even the paper’s executives seem to know, but the move to squeeze subscription fees from online readers doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
Will it work? That is, will revenue from online subscribers substantially exceed the online advertising revenue lost due to the inevitable drop in page views? I dunno. The NY Times fills a kinda unique position in our media landscape as our nation’s undisputed paper of record. So, maybe.
But the big question for me is, successful or not, will this prove to be a viable business model that, say, the Seattle Times might follow in an effort to turn around its own declining financial prospects?
I don’t think so.
The Seattle Times simply does not play as vital and unique a role in our local community as their New York counterpart does nationally. While the NY Times consists almost entirely of original content from some of the best and most highly respected reporters and columnists in the nation, the Seattle Times relies heavily on the Associated Press and other newswires and syndication services to fill its pages. For example, two of the four articles on the front page of today’s dead-tree edition are newswire reprints, including an above-the-fold lead story culled from the pages of… the New York Times.
Why would I pay twice for the same story? Indeed, why would I pay at all for a newswire story I can read elsewhere for free?
Well, I might, because part of my schtick is critiquing the Seattle Times, but as an unrepentant news junkie, I’m the exception that proves the rule. Unless the news industry universally adopts the NY Times model, I just don’t see how dailies like the Seattle Times can demand a high enough flat-rate subscription fee to offset the inevitable loss of readership that would come from hiding their content behind a firewall.
Newspapers are kinda like information department stores, presenting a broad variety of content on a range of subjects and issues in one easy to consume package. But the hierarchy of the Internet is flat, and the barriers to entry relatively nonexistent in terms of capital and infrastructure investments, leaving publications like the Seattle Times vulnerable to specialized competitors.
In the old media technology, where folding a bunch of pages together into one convenient bundle was the most efficient means of distributing news and opinion, the Seattle Times merely needed to do everything well to fend off new competitors. But in the new media technology, being merely good is not good enough.
If The Stranger provides better coverage of the music and arts scene, and the neighborhood blogs provide better coverage of the neighborhoods, and Publicola provides more thorough coverage of Olympia, and HA provides more entertaining and relevant political commentary and analysis… what exactly is the economic incentive for consumers interested in those subjects to subscribe to the Seattle Times as a whole? Indeed, ironically, it is specialized news and opinion sites that have the more compelling argument for placing their content behind subscription firewalls, a model that has worked well for the Puget Sound Business Journal and other online trade publications.
I don’t mean to dis the valuable original reporting that the Seattle Times does produce, but I’m not sure there’s enough of it to make a flat-fee, all-you-can eat subscription a compelling product. I don’t subscribe to cable TV for the very same reason. Sure, there are networks I might purchase on an a la carte basis, were I given the option, but I’m not going to pay $60/month for 500 channels of stuff I’ll never watch. Especially not now, with so much equally compelling content available over the Internet.
No doubt Frank Blethen and his bean counters are encouraged by the NY Times pioneering effort, but they shouldn’t be. The Seattle Times simply is no NY Times, and I don’t see how the business model of one easily translates to the other.
I’m not sure what the solution is for the Seattle Times and other dailies. Hell, I’m not even sure there is one.
Does anyone else find the Seattle Times website frustrating? Hard to find articles, slow loading (especially ads) and just a plain mess. As for the dead trees edition…it’s gotten so small I can read it in 10 minutes.
The ugly truth is we’re turning into a nation of ignoramuses where a growing number of people won’t read newspapers even if they’re free.
Remember the airport security guards who detained a passenger because they thought his Medal of Honor was a weapon?
Nobody in this country knows anything anymore.
The future of America is a country full of people who know nothing about history, economics, how government works, who their congressman is, how to balance a checkbook, or shop for a mortgage loan. A large and growing majority of Americans cannot spell common words correctly or write a grammatically correct sentence. They cannot separate truth from fiction in political slogans and campaign ads. They’re suckers for manipulative marketing. We’ve frittered away our greatest asset, our intellectual strength.
2. Roger Rabbit spews:
Spoken like the posterboy of stupidity!
Mr. Cynical – keep thrashing the racist rabbit. No lucky charms for him!
i.e. you? Hardly..
How’s that Rossi doing?
How’d that I-912 work out for you?
How’d that “non-partisan” Suzie Hutchison work out?
yawwwn…
As Puddy knows, ALL of these rich white “progressives” are a bunch of racists…interested only in power. They have done nothing for black folks other than demand there votes and promise some scraps IF they stay on the Plantation.
Rabbit, steve, YLB, Rujax, Headlice and all their other monikers have revealed their true racist beliefs over & over again.
steve even pretented to have a black friend…but his pretend friend supposedly dies so none of us could meet him.
PHONEYS!
More & more educated Black Americans understand the Progressive/Democrat Scam….ask Puddy. Look at Star Parker.
The list is long and growing.
Progressivism is Marxism by a prettier name.
It’s a self-engrandizing pile of BS used by fragile, empty human beings to make themselves feel more important than they are.
Progressive.
Sounds good.
Who wouldn’t want to be “progressive”??
The question is———
Progressing towards what???? Marxism??
No thanks pinheads.
6. my ancestors came from Europe spews:
And YLB is still lifestyle unemployed and unemployable because…………..he’s lazy and stupid.
hahahhahahah only Dimwhit DemoCRAP rat libtardos would pay money for Old York Slime!
@4 “posterboy of stupidity”
That would be your trog pals on this blog. I wouldn’t necessarily put you in the same basket as them, I think you’re a bit smarter than the likes of Empty Suit Obama or Crusader, and less brain-damaged than puddy, but you have your head up a goat’s ass on most things.
If they do this but keep their syndication in place, won’t a lot of people just limit their reading to the syndicated content? This might actually drive more page views to the Seattle Times and other local news sites that are running NYT content.
i blame the bloggers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01.....wired.html
jeepers goldy, thanks for this post. i didnt think you had the class to post a congratulations to scott brown for his outstanding win. i guess i was wrong.
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
14 – Got any cites to back that up?
biznatch???
10 – Man that is funny..
Apple is going to expand their online business to to text and images when they start selling their new device. Like with iTunes, we don’t have to have an Apple device to access the text and images, but using the new widget will be bloody damn handy, for those folks that that can still afford such things in the Bush economy. Will it save the Times? The question is can the Times compete with the PI for the local business, and That will depend on how many of their writers they can retain in the meantime. Time will tell.
The Seattle Times chose not to hire you. Let it go already.
The Seattle Times chose not to hire you. Let it go already.
why would anyone hire him. he has a slovenly look, he’s vulgar, and he eats chocolate to celebrate a doctor sucking the brains out of an unborn baby.
@19
But chocolate-covered fetuses are just so yummy …
The NYT tried this several years ago, and it didn’t fly–they had to abandon it when nobody signed up and their advertisers started asking why all of a sudden they weren’t getting any click-throughs. And that was back before they started turning into Yet Another Shrinking Newspaper.
That is a great description of the dumb brick ylb arschloch!
the racist ylb is certifiably a wackjob..
Why would anyone waste their money on a NY Slimes subscription?
Two weeks ago the NY Slimes said
A close win for Coakley a “barometer”?
Now here is the aftermath report…
And if you read the NY Slimes on Jan. 8: “A Brown win remains improbable, given that Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3 to 1 in the state and that Ms. Coakley, the state’s attorney general, has far more name recognition, money and organizational support.”
Didn’t the NY Slimes read the polls? Or did they trust the Boston Globe poll?
Not worth the pixels they place on the screen!
Max,
Ask ylb arschloch about his North Pasadena, CA commentary. Marvin Stamn destroyed the arschloch!
ST going the way of NYT invites more direct competition.
ST being pay on line, and delivering on the loser days is weak.
There are a few days out of the week that a newspaper being delivered pays.
Competing entity could deliver something they are already printing, or publishing.
A problem is that the competition is fractured and weak, for now.
25 – Never said anything about North Pasadena asswipe.
Let’s see the link fool. Show us the link! C’mon I double dare you..
Let’s test the swiss cheese holes in the bubble memory..
Put up. Let’s see the proof asswipe.
Max,
You’re doing well. You are getting the HA’s dumbest brick ylb arschloch the chronologically deficient monomaniacal idiot. Notice Puddy doesn’t place a ylb arschloch comment in his tag line. He ain’t worth it!
He’s just a hater of North Pasadena, CA peeps! Marvin Stamn handed your ASS to ylb arschloch. The arschloch says prove it when he knows his ASS was handed to himself by Stamn.
Oh BTW Puddy ain’t gonna find it again cuz it’s in your database. Look it up yourself fool!
Here are some daily orders for your sorry ASS.
Watch Daily Kos TV
Read Huff Po
Stay on Alternet
Read some CAP
Visit Mike Moore
Oh yeah, back here http://horsesass.org/?p=22670&cpage=1 you didn’t refute the North Pasadena comments. See ya ASSWipe!
See ya feckless fool!
29 – Still don’t see the link or the cite.
Are you frightened?
Oh yeah there’s your classic dodge..
For the benefit of the right wing fellow travellers that Stupes is trying his hardest to impress:
Stupes is scared to death of looking bad in front of you. He asserts his “bubble memory” is perfect but it’s not..
It’s actually full of swiss cheese holes.
And he refuses to backup his assertion about “North Pasadena”.. All it takes is a cite… One little cite…
Is that so beyond the “genius” I call Stupes?
Oh yes you did. You better use tctmgr and find it fool!
ylb arschloch,
Puddy doesn’t react to the biddings of dumb bricks. Butt Puddy will say you commented on in last year. Puddy gave a hint of it from #45 and your response just a few down was “priceless”.
31 – Prove it..
Why are you so afraid of that? Go ahead cite what I said..
32 – C’mon. You’re scared aren’t you??
All you gotta do is put what I said in quotes
and provide a link to back it up..
Why is that so hard.. You’re one who said I said something about “North Pasadena”..
You don’t want to back it up..
ylb arschloch,
Puddy doesn’t react to the biddings of dumb bricks. You can find the thread yourself fool. Start at 19000 and move forward.
Search on CA Fires fool.
See ya feckless fool!
35 LOL! You’re reduced to repeating yourself now..
Why do you degrade yourself this way???
YOU ARE SCARED
Of blockquoting what I said with a link for backup..
ylb arschloch,
Puddy doesn’t react to the biddings of dumb bricks. You can’t Pavlov Puddy. You are the Pavlov Dog!
Because it’s worth repeating!
Heh heh… Let’s keep going shall we?
Let’s see if it’s worth repeating all night..
I’m game..
32, 35, 37 and STILL NO CITE..
Keep it going…
Puddy going to bed fool! You betcha no cite. This is all you’ll get… http://horsesass.org/?p=22670&cpage=1
Unlike you Puddy goes to take care of bidness. You can stay here until you sleep on the couch again!
39 – See right wingers.. He runs away..
Why would he do that? He’s Puddybud. Puddybud doesn’t back down from a fight does he?
He’s a right winger! Right wingers fight and win against the evil lefties!!!
The link he provides just asserts the same thing about “North Pasadena”. The same thing he refuses to back up with a simple blockquote and a link to whatever he claims I said.
Here we are at 40 and he has refused since 25 to backup anything he claims I might have said about “North Pasadena”..
Very odd. Don’t you think right wingers?
Ya know Puddy sick and tired of the stupid assinine hijinks of ylb arschloch. So included are the comments of ylb arschloch and the smackdown given by Marvin Stamn. So much for ylb arschloch doubting Puddy’s memory. So much for ylb arschloch LYING again. So much for ylb arschloch being the dumbest brick on HA.
Stay stupid fiend!
55. Marvin Stamn spews:
26. YLB spews:
Tell me moron why are your relatives living in Northwest Pasadena and not up in Tujunga or San Gabriel Canyon?
Easy answer ylb.
All racists think that all blacks live in the hood.
NW pasadena is the hood of pasadena.
Stay stupid fiend! Suck of that!
Wanna see other stupid feckless useless comments you seem to FORGET, just like your Al Franken comment you seemed to FORGET FOOL? Puddy don’t need t store everything from HA on Puddy’s personal systems. Google works just fine looking up your useless horseshit!
Such a whining ASSWipe.
41 – Wow thanks Stupes… You finally came through unlike your idiot friend Max..
So ok in 25 you said
“North Pasadeana”
and in 41 you cite me saying
“Northwest Pasadeana”
Do you see the difference fiend? Now how could I remember that subtle difference and you couldn’t?
The bubble memory be faulty Stupesy.. I thought you’re supposed to be superior to the lefties.
Next question. You have relatives in Pasadena do you not?
For all the HA Libtardos to see how much of a dumb ASS your arschloch is…
25. Puddybud Likes Flying Dutchmen spews:
Max,
Ask ylb arschloch about his North Pasadena, CA commentary. Marvin Stamn destroyed the arschloch!
ylb arschloch farts: 25 – Never said anything about North Pasadena asswipe.
Gotta go. See ya arschloch. Proved you a liar again. Many times over now. Don’t need to brag about it in a tag line. It’s acutely obvious everyday fool! Grasping at straws you racist piece of shit!
43 – You’re running away again…
You don’t want to answer my qweschun?.
I thought Puddybud doesn’t back down from a fight.
I guess you’re a coward too..
So SCARED of admitting a mistake.. even a minor mistake like you made in 25..
And you’re afraid to explain how guessing your relatives living in Northwest Pasadena is the least bit racist.
How is that racist..
Is that all you got????
Here I’ll blockquote. This is you in 25:
This is your cite:
See. Never said anything about “North Pasadena”. “Northwest Pasadena” is another point on the compass fool.
Now please tell me how that’s racist?
See ya ylb arschloch.. You can sit on your fat ASS all day and scour the “Nets”.
Some orders for you today…
…for your sorry ASS.
Watch Daily Kos TV
Read Huff Po
Stay on Alternet
Read some CAP
Visit Mike Moore
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Some peeps have to work to pay for their childrens university education. Someday your wife will have to do that if they prove smart enough to get accepted into Podunk U.
46 – Go ahead and attend to your business fiend.
I’m a generous soul.
Now that I’ve proved your “bubble memory” has a wee little swiss cheese hole., when you come back, maybe you can you answer my question then.
What no Stupes????
Silly coward..
Yeah, complete idiots every one. And they’re all liberal progressive Democrats who probably graduated with honors from UW:
In February 2006, a resolution recommending a memorial be erected to honor Boyington for his service during WWII was raised at the University of Washington … some were concerned about how the legislation was worded to refer to many specific acts of violence and destruction (specifically in Boyington’s Medal of Honor citation, the full text of which was originally included in the resolution), and whether that was appropriate for a Student Senate resolution. … some were questioning the widely-held assumption that all warriors and acts of war are automatically worthy of memorialization.
Ultimately, the resolution was debated upon and resulted in a tie vote (45-45), broken by the Student Senate Chair, defeating the motion. … Discussion in these media centered around two statements that were made by student senators during the meeting. One senator (Ashley Miller) said that the UW already had many monuments to “rich, white men” which created perceptions of racism, classism and sexism among several of the resolution’s proponents and the media covering the story, because of the statement’s perceived implication that the UW therefore need not honor any more. This sentiment came across as particularly petty considering that Boyington was of Sioux ancestry and hardly rich. Another student senator (Jill Edwards) questioned whether the UW should memorialize a person who killed others, and this notion was summarized in the minutes as saying “she didn’t believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce.” …
That’s from a random walk down Wiki. And what about the idiot traitor who tried to stop the investiture of a crook and liar at TSA? Bet DeMint doesn’t read newspapers either.