Stop the Presses: The Future of the NY Times - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBlogger

Once upon a time in the future on January 1 2010 The New York Times announced that it would charge 149 yearly for access to its online content The company39s CEO Arthur Sulzberger Jr also announced that the venerable quotnewspaper of recordquot would cease printing the paper and quotfrom now on it will be available only on the InternetquotquotWe did not make this decision lightlyquot Sulzberger said in a press conference choking back tears quotbecause I like my close friend Rupert Murdoch was born with ink in my veins But we could no longer ignore the economic realities We are bleeding money as well as ink Carlos Slim won39t lend us any more money no one is dumb enough to do a saleleaseback agreement on our printing presses and Canada is running out of trees to cut downquotquotFor our loyal aging readers who don39t have computers or for those who just like the sensation of holding paper and getting their fingers dirty we have a program we39ve developed jointly with HP to give them color printers so they can print out a specially formatted version of the Timesquot In a typically lame attempt at humor Sulzberger added quotwe39ve transferred the cost of paper and ink to our readers should they chose to accept itquotA task force led by Sulzberger and Martin Neisenholz senior vice president digital operations considered whether or not to charge for online content how much to charge and whether or not to continue printing the paper The task force sought the advice of leading newspaper journalism academic and Internet experts before making a decision Among those consulted was blogger Jeff Jarvis the author of What Would Google Do Jarvis has pontificated for years that content on the Internet should be free and that when companies contemplate an Internet strategy they should ask quotWhat Would Google DoquotApparently Sulzberger did just that and called Google39s CEO Eric Schmidt who had gone on record in 2008 as indicating that it was important for the Times to survive Sulzberger asked Schmidt if Google owned the Times what would it do He asked this question after he asked Schmidt if Google would be interested in buying the Times and turning it into a nonprofit organizationSchmidt39s answer to the first question was quotAre you kiddingquot and to the second question was quotCharge for your valuable content Google would have gone out of business if we hadn39t figured out how to charge for our valuable search resultsquot Sulzberger was concerned that they would lose a lot of traffic and could therefore charge less for online advertising However Schmidt said that they would save enough by discontinuing the incredibly wasteful printing and distribution process to be able to surviveSchmidt39s most persuasive comment was quotLook you have no choice Your content is valuable and by charging for it you will lose casual freeloading readers who don39t really value your content These readers are more than likely of less value to advertisers so you can charge a higher rate for lower but more desirable ad impressions online You will force people to make a choice between the Times and other publications that charge for subscriptions Others will be hurt not youquotSulzberger said that the Times had a bad experience charging for content with Times Select which charged readers to access the Times39 columnists such as Maureen Dowd Frank Rich Paul Krugman Gail Collins David Brooks Bob Herbert Thomas Friedman and Nicholas Kristof Schmidt replied with uncharacteristic sarcasm quotWhy are you surprised that few people were thrilled about paying to read Maureen Dowd They might read her if it didn39t cost anything but weren39t willing to pay for the privilege That might be more of a comment on the quality of your columnists than on the willingness of people to pay for content Lots of people who hate its editorial policy pay for the Wall Street Journal39s online content because overall they find it valuablequotquotIt39s time to realize that the newspaper business is not in the manufacturing business The Times has been run like General Motors for too long allowing the unions too much power Get out of the printing business Get into the news business onlinequotAnd so The New York Times stopped printing a paper charged for its online content and everyone except those who liked dirty fingers lived happily ever afterUntil he retired in 2002 Charlie Warner was Vice President of AOL39s Interactive Marketing division Before joining AOL he was the Goldenson Endowed Professor at the Missouri Journalism School where he taught media management and sales and he created and ran the annual Management Seminar for News Executives Charlie can be contacted at charleshwarnergmailcom

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Stop the Presses: The Future of the NY Times - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBlogger

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