In case you had not heard, the New York Times is looking to make an extra buck from the online readers of their daily by adding a pay-wall to their website of information.
The digital pay model (or “metered model”) they’re implementing involves the following:
– Customers (home delivery) of the Times and its global edition, the International Herald Tribune, will have free and unlimited access to NYTimes.com and all the content in their apps, even if the end-user has a limited print subscription package.
– Starting on March 28th, surfers who hit up the Web site with smartphone and tablet app users who don’t receive subscriptions will find themselves cut off after they read 20 items of content per month. After that, the user is asked to subscribe.
-
There are three plans, if you must know:
1) The basic plan includes access to NYTimes.com and the smartphone app, costs $15 per every four-week period.
2) Unlimited use of the site and the ability to use a tablet to access to the site will $20 every four weeks.
3) If you want unlimited access to the site from all three web platforms, that will cost you $35 every four weeks.
– Right now, the homepage and section teasers are free to view for all.
Here are the side-steps to the pay wall they’re looking to instigate:
Crosswords aren’t included in the free content, but accessing articles via search engine links, various blogs and social media won’t ding your monthly free cap. There’s a five article per day cap on items accessed from Google.
Keep in Mind (KIM) that these fees are above and beyond any other fees you’re already paying for e-reader access to the New York Times site.
=
Food for Thought (FFT)
I find it interesting that they’re segregating users by their accessing platform. I’d think that if you wanted to access a website from what ever instrument you have, it shouldn’t matter the cost. But I’m guessing there’s a perspective that if you can spring for a tablet, you’ve got more money to spare than others.
That seems unfair to me. It’s like charging more for a newspaper in Beverly Hills than in downtown Van Nuys. Give me a break!
But then again, this is how consumer market tests go, and in the end, that’s how we end up getting stuck with things like pay-walls. Because they work for a small majority of the pack.
=
Coming soon… part 2 of this observation where I rant on and on about marketing tests on consumers and how we get stuck in the end!
[ adweek ]
