The New York Times: Print vs. Digital

One of the main concerns that many consumers have about the journalism industry is that print journalism is on the way out.  Newspapers and magazines are a thing of the past, everything is going digital.  The New York Times, which is a constant in the print journalism world, recently erected a paywall for their website.  The Times recently released they have 100,000 new subscribers since they installed this new policy, which brings in an estimated $26 million in revenue.  Evercore Partners analyst Doug Arthur said about the new subscribers, "It's an excellent figure...I (was) only looking for 200,000 subscribers in year one."  An estimated $13 million is being spent to promote the new online subscriptions.

Photo credit: mandiberg

The downside of the policy is that there has been a 15 percent drop in the overall traffic of the site because of the article limitations, which was expected. The new subscribers are coming at a good time for The Times, their print advertising revenue is on the decline.  Their revenue declined 4.4 percent on a 7.5 percent drop in print ad revenue, even though their digital ad revenue rose 4.5 percent during the first quarter. Their net income fell 57.6 percent to 5.4 million (4 cents per share) from 12.8 million (8 cents per share) a year ago.

Other newspapers have also reported disappointing quarter results such as Gannett and Media General.  Other newspapers who have had success with charging for online access have been few, such as the News Corp's Wall Street Journal and Pearson Plc's Financial Times.

In this constant digital evolution, will there be room for print papers, even The New York Times?  Some have a more positive outlook than others.  The Onion, trying to find humor in the decline, released an article, "Why Did No One Inform Us Of the Imminent Death of the American Newspaper Industry?"  You can read it here.

What do you think?  Do you think the imminent death of the newspaper industry is inevitable or do you think consumers will never get enough of their print newspapers?

New York Times Paywall: Success or Bust?

The New York Times recently installed a subscription system on their website.  After a user exhausts his or her 20 free articles each month, they are asked to buy a subscription (see previous post for more details).  As soon as 24-hours after the paywall was erected, users found ways to get around the it.

Photo Credit: Ciccio Pizzettaro

• A user in Canada named David Hayes created an applications, "NYClean."  It works by dragging the NYClean bookmark to the toolbar of your browser.  Anytime you are on the Times website and are blocked, click it.  You will be able to read the article as you were before the paywall was put into place.
• The paywall does not work on Twitter and other social media sites.  If you click on an link that was posted to an account, it does not count against your 20 free articles. There are feeds such as @timeswiretap and @freeNYTimes that constantly tweet recent articles as they are posted.
• Mashable reported two of their readers Dmitry Beniaminov and Yuri Victor discovered that if readers remove "?gwh=numbers" from the URL, this will let readers continue reading.  They also discovered if readers clear their browser caches or switch browsers once they hit 20 articles, this will also solve the problem.
• According to Newspaper Death Watch, the Times prevents readers from reading more than 20 articles a month with a Javascript overlay.  This means the article is visible in the background with the pop-up asking the reader to subscribe in front of it.  Many browsers block Javascript by default, and the NYTClean also takes care of the HTML which overrides the Javascript.

Photo Credit: zebble

There are many different views about the paywall.  The Times is supporting their plan, confident in their prices and the idea.  Times writer David Carr wrote, "People, real actual people, went and reported that information, some of it at personal peril and certainly at giganitc institutional expense.  So the Times is turning toward its customers to bear some of the cost.  The Times is hardly alone: AFP, Reuters, The Associated Press, Dow Jones, the BBC and NPR are all part of a muscular journalistic ecosystem."  He admits his bias since he does write for the Times, but he writes in support of the cost and his company.

There are also other professionals who agree with the Times.  Larry Kramer wrote why he will pay the subscription fee, "I want my NY Times information frequently and easily and I will do what it takes, including paying for it, to make sure I get full access to everything produced by the 1100 journalists who work there...In the case of the Times, the content has already prove its value to me over the many years I have consumed it, in print and on line.  I know I want it and I know I need it.  I may have loved getting it for free online over the years, but I also know how good it is and that it has value to me."

However, not everyone is as positive as Carr and Kramer.  Steve Outing, a blogger, said he was disappointed in the paywall and he believes it is a bad move.  "I hope someone from the NY Times management will respond to my criticims.  If they do, I expect that the justification for this announced pricing model will be they can't do harm to the newspaper product.  I guess that's the way it is.  But in my view, this over-priced metered-paywall mistaken strategy puts the "Gray Lady" a step closer to the grave rather than getting a chance at a new life."  The Onion, a parody news source, also got their word in on the subject with an article titled, "NYTimes.com's Plan to Charge People Money For Consuming Goods, Services Called Bold Business Move."

I can see the pros and cons of the subscription service.  We will need to wait and see if readers use the methods to get around the fees or if they are willing to pay for a news source they enjoy reading.

Do you think the subscription will work out for the Times, or do you think it will negatively affect their business?

Photo Credit: RambergMediaImages

The New York Times Paywall Subscription

On March 17, The New York Times announced their new system involving digital subscriptions. In the letter to readers, it states the transition is "...an important step that we hope you will see as an investment in The Times, one that will strengthen our ability to provide high-quality journalism to readers around the world and on any platform."  You can read the entire official announcement here.

The company announced that starting March 28, digital subscriptions would start being offered in the United States.  The plan consists of viewing 20 articles per month for free but if you view more than 20 articles you will be asked to become a subscriber.  Phone apps fall under this category asp well.  There is currently a special happening with all variations of the subscriptions, where each costs 99 cents per plan for the first four weeks.
The digital subscriptions consist of the following:

• NYTimes.com + Smartphone App = Access from any computer or device plus an app for Blackberry, iPhone or Android smartphones. 
•  Cost: $3.75 per week, billed every 4 weeks ($15.00)
• NYTimes.com + Tablet App = Access from any computer or device plus an app for iPod.  Plus Times Reader 2.0 and NYTimes App for Chrome Web Store.
• Cost: $5.00 per week, billed every 4 weeks ($20.00)
• All Digital Access = Access from any computer or device, plus Smartphone App and Tablet App.  This is also free for all print subscribers and home delivery subscribers.  
• Cost: $8.75 per week, billed every 4 weeks ($35.00)

This model took 14 months and 40 million dollars to develop.  All other questions are answer in their  FAQ section about the subscriptions.

Will this new payment system work?  Will other companies follow suit?  In my opinion, I do think there needs to be a business model developed for journalism online.  Television and radio forms of journalism have business methods and I do not think online journalism should be different.  Is this the right model?  Is this the right model?  Should other sites implement similar models?  This is to be determined.  In the upcoming months we will have to gauge the success of the new subscription, and see whether it is detrimental to The New York Times's business or beneficial.

Below is a video from Newsy Videos debating if this new plan will work or not.

Do you think The New York Times paywall will be effective?  Will they lose business?  Or will they be successful and set the business model?