Zahlen für News

Es ist soweit, die NY Times rudert zurück und öffnet seine ihre komplette Seite für alle Leser, beendet also ihr Subscription Program »Times Select« [via].

Anlass genug für Jimmy Guterman beim O’Reilly Radar über die Zukunft der bezahlten Online-News zu schreiben: Will Anyone Pay for a Newspaper Online?:

The Times’s own coverage spells out the business reason for the change: “many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYtimes.com. These indirect readers, unable to gain access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.” In other words, Google made 'em do it.

[…] What is worth worrying about, though, is that the Times and perhaps soon the Journal have decided that, on their eventual primary platform, their customers aren’t willing to pay enough to make it worth charging them. More than readership, advertising comes in cycles.

Das mag bewerten wer will.