Today (yesterday?) at midnight the New York Times officially nixed the Times Select program where monthly subscribers paid for access to the archives and op-ed columnists. The realization for the Times being that the thousands -- even hundreds of thousands -- of subscribers doesn't come close to the money you get from millions of eyeballs flitting to and fro on the paper of record.This is certainly a significant move for all new media types and content producers/managers. Perhaps the final nail in the coffin on pay-to-play debates. Readers by-and-large expect the internet and the content therein to be free, and you swim against that tide at your own risk.
Of course for me personally, my take away is something I tell the ladies all the time: You're only a hoe if you make me pay for it, but give it up for free and I'll love you forever.
NY Times to drop charges for website [MSNBC]
I was so happy when I read happy to read this this morning. I have been missing Maureen Dawd and Frank Rich.
ReplyDeleteIf you aspire to be published places, as it seems you do, you might want to aspire those places to make enough money to exist. To make money, they have to charge something -- unless you have some way to start a barter society.
ReplyDeleteI agree, cecilieaux. Money is cool. But the New York Times is not going under. The story reports subscription revenue in the $10M range, while annual ad revenue is in the [hundred] billion dollar range. So they're pissing a lot of people off, and creating an annoying user environment for small change; which is why they made the business decision of shutting it down. It's just silly when you're positioned as the paper of record. Maybe Penn Station should install piss sprinklers and a cover charge to get in the building, just because they can?
ReplyDeleteAlso ... sharing is caring, and more and more people only need to buy/invest if they care.
Somehow the maxim about getting the milk plus having sex with the cow for free (slo-mo cam!) also comes to mind. But that might be a personal issue.
Invoice is in the mail on this comment, btw. Hope you enjoyed it!
you're only a hoe if you make me pay for it...classic ish.
ReplyDeleteA Cleveland resident, I almost purchased the online subscription a few weeks ago. Man, would I have been mad.
Hopefully ESPN Insider will now follow suit. People are linking the ish out of thier articles anyway.
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