May 03, 2005
New York Times Thinking About New Online Business Models
According to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times is considering new business models for its internet site. The company supposedly polled its readers on whether they would want to pay $49.99 a year to gain unlimited to access to articles written in the past year or if they would rather get access to up to 100 articles/month from the entire archive going back to 1851.Currently the site offer free access to articles written in the past week. Any older articles cost $2.95 each or $7.95 for a bundle of 4 and $25.95 for a bundle of 25. Now that the Wall Street Journal actually makes more money from its online subscriptions than the print edition, New York Times wants in on the action.
But frankly it's a different audience, financial people are more than willing to pay $79 a year for a online version filled with proprietary finance content. While the New York Times content is often easily replaceable by the Washington Post, CNN, and many others. Tough call.
Fred Searby, an analyst with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., said he did not expect the Times to follow the Journal in charging for all its content, but selling subscriptions for certain content would be prudent. The surveys of Times readers suggest "they know they have to shake the tree up and look at different ways to enhance revenues," Mr. Searby said. Because of declines in circulation of the print product, "it's that much more critical to get your Internet strategy right." J.P. Morgan has an investment banking relationship with the publisher. Source: WSJ
