Sunday, January 17, 2010

New York Times Ready To Charge Online Readers


AOG, Madrid

Television pays for itself through advertising, and it is free (unless you have cable). Radio, a medium with a lot of things in common with the internet, also somehow manages to "survive" without charging for content.

The NYT claims that to continue to pay for its "high-cost, ambitious journalism", it must charge online readers. I don't see this as working, especially now that the NYT has gone global and, as it claims, it has 20 million unique readers (I among them).

I think someone has forgotten to remind this paper that online users consult a lot of different sources to get their news, not just one or two.

Especially people under 25. Whilst I know that since we pay for paper, it would make sense to pay for online content, it is also true that there is something in the internet which makes it anathema to even consider this option.

If NYT starts to charge, its 20 million "unique users" will mostly flee.

I don't think I can afford to pay for several papers online. I'm sure that what will happen is that some other paper delivers the same news for free, and that will be the way users will go. Open market means zero fidelity.

NYT, and other who consider going down that road, will soon experience a rude awakening.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost