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On Monday, Tom Johansmeyer indicated that a for-pay model for the online version of The New York Times was imminent. Indeed, a press release from The New York Times Company (NYT) hit the wires Wednesday morning, revealing that a paid version of NYTimes.com would launch at the beginning of 2011 -- that's next year. So "All the News That's Fit to Print" will be available to Web browsers at a cost.
But the only folks that will have to open their wallets are those who leaf through lots of Times articles. The casual news browser will have free access to a specified number of articles each month before being charged. Subscribers who pay for home delivery of the traditional paper will have free and unlimited access to the site.
This so-called metered model is a good balance, New York Times officials believe, because the traffic will remain impressive enough to win over advertisers, but an additional revenue stream will be added to supplement the company's bottom line.
This news shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. The newspaper business has been foundering for years against the backdrop of online competition, and if more people are going to take their morning coffee at their computer rather than in their reading chair, they should be expected to pay a fee. But will it be enough to breathe some life into the NYT share price? In the past five years, the stock has dropped 66%, despite a solid pop higher in 2009. On Wednesday's news, the shares stepped back modestly, down about 1.3% in mid-morning trading.
Beth works for The Options News Network (www.ONN.tv), which provides daily options commentary. The above comments are not intended as trading advice.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-20-2010 @ 3:01PM
Kent said...
It's the only way to sustain NYT's business for the future, I think. I am subscribing to the WSJ through this method and am quite pleased with the product they provide through the Web. It will be interesting to see how NYT manages the web and whether they pattern it after WSJ's.