As the newspaper industry is assaulted by bloggers on one side and readers' decreasing willingness to pay for content on the other, the industry in searching for the right model.Current trends show companies like the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) lowering or removing the "pay wall" between users and content. The NYT recently discontinued its Times Select section, which required subscription fees, and since then, traffic to parts of the site that previously required payment has increased greatly.
So, it's not surprising to read an article today in PaidContent.org that claims similar success with a change in the model at the Financial Times' website. PaidContent.org reports claims by staff at FT.com that admit to traffic and registration increases due to a recent change in the subscription structure.
"FT.com now allows readers coming in from blogs and other aggregators to read five stories a month for free and another 30 for free upon registering with the site," says PaidContent.org. After that, users would have to pay up.
The result?
Registration on the site went from 200 to 400 a week up to between 15,000 and 17,000 a week and page views are up 100%.
Not too shabby.
The message is clear: good content wants to be set free and publishers now have an ad-supported model as a viable way to monetize the content in which they've invested so heavily.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NYSE: NWS) is addressing the same issue with its recent acquisition of Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Users will eventually see a free WSJ.com.
Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author doesn't hold any stocks mentioned.
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