HISTORY's Moments in Media: The New York Times' Surprisingly Profitable Paywall

Except not quiteThe Times installed what was called a quotleaky paywallquot meaning that a user could read 20 articles per month for free before they were asked to subscribe Today that number is down to five The idea was that the paper would still be able to retain traffic from occasional readers and that as those occasional readers sampled more of the newspaper39s journalism they39d come to see the value of subscribing In fact when the paywall was first instituted links to nytimescom from search engines and social networks didn39t count against the monthly limit Over time the Times removed this and other exceptionsThey tightened the paywall because it became clear it was working In fact arguably it saved the newspaper Last month the Times announced that it ended 2019 with 52 million subscribers amp8212 the most it has ever had and of whom 35 million are digitalonly amp8212 and 800 million in digital revenueThe Times and its paywall are now seen as models for other traditional news outlets struggling in the digital eraThat had not been the expectation Before the Times launched its paywall the company was in crisis As the Internet disrupted the news business ad revenue was in freefall Readers were disappearing too if more slowly The New York Times Company was in debt forced to sell off its new tower near Times Square and lease back the floors it occupied At the start of 2009 the Atlantic published quotEnd Timesquot an article suggesting that America39s greatest newspaper might soon go out of businessThere was a lot of skepticism that people would ever pay for what they39d become used to reading for free The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times had previously established pay models the widespread assumption was that people would pay for critical financial data especially when their employer was footing the bill but commentators thought the Times and its generalinterest news stood no chance quotWhy Newspaper Paywalls Are Still a Bad Ideaquot proclaimed a headline at Bloomberg News quotWhy the New York Times Will Lose to the Huffington Postquot read another at Wired on the launch of the paywall HuffPost for its part took a shot at the Times publisher who was leading the paywall effort quotHere39s an Idea for Saving the NYT Don39t Charge Instead Fire Arthur SulzbergerquotBut it soon became clear that the plan was working By summer 2011 just months after the paywall39s launch the Times reported 224000 digital subscribers compared to a rumored 12month goal of 300000 At the oneyear mark the paper had 324000 digital subscribers amp8212 surpassing that rumored target amp8212 even as further declines in print advertising dragged down the company39s overall performanceAnd then things continued to look up Last February just before the nineyear mark for the paywall digital revenue at the Times for the first time exceeded print revenue Some 33 million people were paying for digital subscriptions some of those for the Crossword and Cooking apps rather than for the main news product for a total of 43 million print and digital subscribers By then it had pulled far ahead of all its competitors including the Journal in terms of number of subscribers The company set a target of 10 million total subscribers by 2025 And then this year39s numbers were even betterThe truth is it39s been a rough period for newspapers with more than one in five closing in the past 15 years and the number of newspaper journalists cut in half amp8212 as the Times itself has reported But things at the Times are different now When the paywall went up the New York Times Company stock cost about 6 per share When markets hit their record highs late last month it was trading near 40Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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HISTORY's Moments in Media: The New York Times' Surprisingly Profitable Paywall

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HISTORY's Moments in Media: The New York Times' Surprisingly Profitable Paywall

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