The Future of Newspaper Online Content

The New York Times is not the only newspaper to be offering a metered subscription service, but it’s now the most famous example. The Financial Time, from the U.K., has a similar system. Then there are some publishers, such as The Wall Street Journal, which have managed to keep much of its content behind the wall for subscribers for many years.

Newspaper revenues have dropped precipitously in the last decade. Lost subscribers and (especially) classified revenues have hammered the industry. Will this move by the Times provide a tourniquet for the red ink? We can’t help thinking that the Times will find again that most people will resist paying a subscription and the fight will be on to see if the diminished web traffic will be compensated for by those that do subscribe.

And what of mobile access? Apps are the big difference in the consumption of content since the last time the Times had a pay wall. Will those that have been used to unlimited mobile access to Times content be more willing to pay to keep that mobile access than they were a few years to keep web access? Or will other enterprising news publishers fill the gap with their own free mobile access?