MGMT S-5010 Electronic Commerce Strategies
New York Times Paywall
by
Mauricio Hill
Carina (Tsai-Ling) Lee
Ranoo Sharma
Otto Silva
Oscar Wei
, Q1. Is the Paywall working? Why or why not?
The New York Times tried to apply Paywall twice in the past, and both
times did not turn out as good as the management expected. The first
paywall experiment conducted in 1996 indicated that the readers of The
Times did not participate. The management ends up being convinced
that the paywall completely destructs the value of The Times for its
readers; they believed that their readers find value in no-fee registration
model with advertiser-support. The second try was conducted in 2005.
Rather than "all or nothing" in 1996, the second approach was to limit
access to noted columnists with discounts to students and other
selected readers. Since the print subscribers are not charged an extra
fee to read all articles, The Times did not suffer as much loss of readers
like the last attempt of the paywall. Additionally, due to the rise of the
internet in the early 2000s, the rise of social media and increase in
quality of blogs on TimesSelect, more and more readers are subscribing
to their website.
The new paywall launched in 2011 indicated that The Times has learned
from its past experiments. The new paywall would be considered as a
working model. This is because the amount of subscriber increased and
the company has focused its main revenue from printed copies and ad
on those newspaper onto the advertisement on its website. The digital
advertising revenue increased 5.3% and the print advertising revenue
declined by 7.8% in the last quarter of 2011. The act of The Times
changing its focus on revenue model shows that the new paywall is
sustainable and a working model for The Times.
New York Times Paywall
by
Mauricio Hill
Carina (Tsai-Ling) Lee
Ranoo Sharma
Otto Silva
Oscar Wei
, Q1. Is the Paywall working? Why or why not?
The New York Times tried to apply Paywall twice in the past, and both
times did not turn out as good as the management expected. The first
paywall experiment conducted in 1996 indicated that the readers of The
Times did not participate. The management ends up being convinced
that the paywall completely destructs the value of The Times for its
readers; they believed that their readers find value in no-fee registration
model with advertiser-support. The second try was conducted in 2005.
Rather than "all or nothing" in 1996, the second approach was to limit
access to noted columnists with discounts to students and other
selected readers. Since the print subscribers are not charged an extra
fee to read all articles, The Times did not suffer as much loss of readers
like the last attempt of the paywall. Additionally, due to the rise of the
internet in the early 2000s, the rise of social media and increase in
quality of blogs on TimesSelect, more and more readers are subscribing
to their website.
The new paywall launched in 2011 indicated that The Times has learned
from its past experiments. The new paywall would be considered as a
working model. This is because the amount of subscriber increased and
the company has focused its main revenue from printed copies and ad
on those newspaper onto the advertisement on its website. The digital
advertising revenue increased 5.3% and the print advertising revenue
declined by 7.8% in the last quarter of 2011. The act of The Times
changing its focus on revenue model shows that the new paywall is
sustainable and a working model for The Times.
