Monday, March 28, 2011
NY Times To Charge for Online Newspaper
I thought this article was interest, because I personally used to read NY Times on occasion. I think it's interesting that in a world that is becoming more and more online and with more information being free, that they would choose to start charging readers. I'm not sure whether or not they will be as successful with the new fees. I know they will keep some readers, but I feel like more casual readers will be turned off by the new fees. You can still read up to 20 articles a month for free, which really isn't that much when you think about it. The prices seem pretty high to me too, but then I also don't have a normal newspaper subscription. Again, I just think it's interesting that they are now choosing to start charging fees during a time where information is becoming easier to access.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm not surpised to hear of subsciption fees to newspapers. As a matter of fact, I was wondering what took them so long. Don't get me wrong, I think it is unfortunate.In the past we could get our newspaper (hard copy). But not anything else. The advent of the web opened up so many opportunities. Nothing's free but the air we breath, and some one would charge you for it if or when they can figure out how to do it. Water is still free. Unless we succomb to marketing.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how a company evolves the marketing of its product. The way it is presented changes (from paper to virtual) but so does the way it is "sold" from pay-per-copy to free-on-web to now pay-per-virtual-copy. I wonder how charging will be justified to the customer - will the value added features keep enough people interested or will it not be enough and will "subscription" numbers remain low? I know I get really irked when I get to a web site, find what I need and them click return only to get a "pay now" request. Did management find it necessary to charge because advertising and other revenue streams are simply not enough or??
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Dan. If there is a way to make a dollar they will do it. But I also agree with Greg here. I don't know that doing this will help them. I can't imagine that I would want to subscribe to an online newspaper for $20 a month and only be able to read 20 articles. One dollar an article seems pretty steep when you can buy a printed newspaper for less. I think they are moving forward and many newspapers will follow, I just don't think I am at that point. I think this could go either way. I think it may have a positive effect for the company or maybe it won't have any affect for the company at all. I feel like there are to many other ways to get the information you want for free.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised by this article either. There are actually many places that charge subscription fees for their websites so it only makes sense that the NY times would follow. Besides, not only would they lose out on the sales from on-line viewers themselves but if avid readers realized they could get the same stuff on-line for free then they will also lose those subscribers. I do, however, think that the price seems a bit ridiculous. For now I don't think it will have a huge impact on them but it will be interesting to see what the future holds.
ReplyDeleteI have personally been on the NY Times list for about 5 years. I love this paper and I love the fact that throughout the day, I get news alerts of timely news items. The example I will give you is from a little over two years ago when the airplane when down in the Hudson River. I was on-line and I received that news item before anyone else here at the company. As the travel manager, I was able to check with out travel agency, (we do have people traveling that route on a daily basis) and I could left everyone know of the incident, but that we had on one on that flight. I was so relieved.
ReplyDeleteI personally see the very much like Dan, I can’t believe it has taken the newspapers this long to figure out that a good portion of their readers will go to the web, and read what they want without paying for anything. I am not a television watcher, so I love to read my newspaper.