I hate to rain on the parade of pundits who hail TimesSelect’s demise as proving paid content is dead. Thought payment for the traditional one-to-many package of news content, or even a subsection of it, is dead; people will be willing to pay for customized news services that exactly match from all sources each of their individual needs.
The New York Times Company attempts sleight-of-hand in its announcement ending its experiment at charging for online access to its Opinion section and archives.
Why news publications that withold some content from online, charge for ‘premium’ online content, or give access to some online content only to print subscribers are not only failing to stem their print circulation erosion but also reducing their sites’ online growth and potential.
Times magazines redesigns its print edition to largely points to its website. And The New York Times’ woefully underperforming TimesSelect to let students in for free.
NYTimes.com’s TimesSelect’s pyrrhic $11.5 million revenues demonstrate the One Percent conversion rule. The New York Times reports Schibsted’s online success. The Society for Newspaper Design names Äripev, El Economista, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, and Politiken as the ‘World’s Best Designed’ newspapers. American Journalism Review profiles Adrian Holovaty. And Dr. Piet Bakker tracks the rise of free printed daily newspapers.