New York Times: Times Select II?

By Michael Fraase

Sunday, 17 January 2010 05:41PM CST

Section: Publishing

New York Times buildingThe New York Times is ready to announce its second attempt at a paywall, charging for access to its website. So reports Gabriel Sherman writing for New York magazine.

The US paper of record’s first attempt at erecting a paywall around its online content, Times Select, was an abysmal failure. Readership for the content behind the paywall fell dramatically and columnists including Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd publicly verbalized their frustration.

This time around, the Times will try a metered system similar to the one pioneered by the Financial Times. Online readers will be able to read a set number of articles at no charge before being required to subscribe. The key will be how many free article reads will be allowed per day. Set the number too low and all of your Googlejuice and a good bit of your advertising revenue immediately evaporate. Set the number too high and it’s probably not a sustainable business model.

Sherman opines that Times chair Arthur Sulzberger Jr. may make an official announcement in a few weeks, citing unnamed source speculation that “Sulzberger will strike a content partnership” for Apple’s forthcoming iSlate tablet computing device, rumored to be announced on January 27.

The New York Times is a special case. On one hand it’s the undisputed US newspaper of record. On the other, its an exemplar of everything that’s wrong with corporate media. Web content professionals everywhere will be watching this closely, as the struggle for a sustainable business model for online publishing continues.

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