In a letter to readers, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company, said this payment plan “will primarily affect those who are heavy consumers of the content on our Web site and on mobile applications.”
Readers can access 20 articles per calendar month free, but when they check out the 21st article, they will be asked to subscribe to one of three packages: $15 for a month of access to the website and a mobile phone app; $20 for Web access and an iPad app; and $35 for an all-access plan. There isn’t a plan to just get free access to NYTimes.com; the $15 package also includes access to the smartphone app.
The announcement stresses “all New York Times home delivery subscribers will receive free access to NYTimes.com and to all content on our apps.” This applies to all subscribers, even if they only pay for the weekend papers.
Realizing the importance of maintaining a strong social media relationship with its readers, the Times “will allow access to people who visit through search engines like Google and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. There will, however, be a five-article limit a day for people who visit the site from Google,” a Times article states.
The 20-article limit applies immediately to Canadians. Why is Canada a guinea pig for the Times’ digital subscription plan? The Times says it wants to ensure as smooth a transition as possible for their 30 millions readers and are launching in Canada with one subscription plan to perfect the customer experience before the global launch on March 28.
Canadians can access the entire website and access mobile content with an introductory offer of 99 cents a month for the first month. After, readers will be charged the usual $15 a month.
On its mobile apps, the Top News section remains free for anyone, but any other sections require a digital subscription plan.
“This system is our latest, and best, demonstration of where we believe the future of valued content — be it news, music, games or more — is going,” Sulzberger said.
The Times’ payment plans are not the pay wall users experience when they visit the UK’s Times, for instance. Instead, some are calling it a “pay fence,” since it works on a metered system and allows you a number of articles free before asking for subscriptions. So will this strategy work?
“Consider the Times’ and other moves as getting up on a bicycle and learning to ride it,” writes Ken Doctor, an author who studies the economics of the newspaper business. “For 15 years, newspaper companies have been careening around on unicycles, trying to make digital ad revenue, in and of itself and with too little attention to core readers, work. Now, they are trading in those unicycles for bicycles.”
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