New York Times Considers Charging Web Readers $5 a Month
Bloombergreports that the New York Times Co. said in a survey to print subscribers that they are considering charging a monthly $5 fee for access to the nytimes.com website. They survey also asked subscribers if they would consider paying a $2.50 fee.
Times Co. is contemplating additional sources of revenue as marketers slow spending on the Internet. Ad sales at the publisher's sites, also including about.com and boston.com, fell 8 percent and 3.5 percent in the first quarter and fourth quarter of 2008 respectively. They gained 6.5 percent last year.
"The question here for consumers is the psychological barrier of now paying when you were getting it for free before, and you're going to lose some readers as a result," said Ken Doctor, an analyst at Outsell Inc. in Burlingame, California. "The New York Times will also have to evaluate what this means for ad rates as they lose readers."
If the New York Times started charging a fee there would be many that would not pay and they would suffer a serious reduction in traffic. The New York Times used to have a paid feature called Times Select that charged for select columns and blogs but it was discontinued in 2007. Bloomberg says 200,000 people paid for Times Select at its peak.
Bloomberg 
