(Slightly) Off-Topic Poll: Paying for The Times Online?
Over on the Silicon Alley Insider today, Henry Blodgett makes the case that The New York Times needs to start charging a subscription fee for full access to the newspaper’s extremely popular website. Given what a lifeblood of content it is for this blog (and most others), the answer is a no-brainer ‘yes’ for us,…
Over on the Silicon Alley Insider today, Henry Blodgett makes the case that The New York Times needs to start charging a subscription fee for full access to the newspaper’s extremely popular website. Given what a lifeblood of content it is for this blog (and most others), the answer is a no-brainer ‘yes’ for us, but we’re curious to see where readers come down on the issue.
I would probably pay no more than $30. I already have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal primarily because it’s $80 for the print edition compared to around $500 for the NYT’s!
I would probably pay no more than $30. I already have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal primarily because it’s $80 for the print edition compared to around $500 for the NYT’s $500!
Personally I wouldn’t pay for it (it annoys me to no end that they still make you register/log-in to view free content – pet peeve of mine).
They use to charge and must have had a reason to stop, I wonder why the change of heart in the first place…
… regardless, they’ll get nary a penny outta me…
It’s a double edged sword. I pay for home delivery seven days per week so would expect to get full online access for no additional fees. I would (probably) be happy to just get the weekend papers delivered and read everything else online during the week (which I pretty much do anyway). If that were to happen in sizeable numbers then the loss of print buyers midweek would then decimate their (already declining) display advertising revenue.
The death of newspapers throughout the country, particularly in small cities and towns,is a sad thing. Yes, bloggers are picking up a lot of slack but unpaid bloggers can’t sit in the courts, local government centers and so on and report what goes on there. It’s that sort of community news which is going to be lost and I am not sure that that’s a good thing.
does the subscription model work for anyone anymore? isn’t it about traffic, traffic, traffic and the ads that follow? I pay for the Times, but wasn’t their “premium” online experiment was a giant flop
(do people listen do Henry Blodgett anymore?)
If I had to pay for on-line access, I would cancel my home-delivery, which is pretty expensive. I think they know a lot of their customers would do that.
The Times did charge for access to certain content like the opinion columns for about a year or two. Then they discontinued that program and made everything available to everyone again. Seems like they have already run the numbers.
I wouldn’t pay, but they should definitely start doint it.
If they have a weekend online only option I’d go for it.