Aug 07 2007
NYT to drop TimesSelect — Blodgett
“This move confirms just how hard it is for news organizations to generate subscription revenue online: If the Times can’t do it, almost no one can (the one modest success story, the Wall Street Journal, will presumably be next to throw in the towel). The failure of TimesSelect is also yet more proof that newspapers will have to fundamentally restructure their businesses as the world migrates online. The revenue-per-reader the companies can generate online is only a fraction of what they can generate in print, and the online businesses simply won’t support the same cost structure.”
good riddance I say. I could never access Select, and I was a freaking print subscriber who was supposed to get it for free. Customer support was useless – “we’ll get back to you” (never did). I think they were confused, me living in NH and all. Live free (as in content) or die!
Cost and reg walls must die. Period. Last gasp of the old media is the erection of a wall. First sign of sanity is their takedown.
[...] Earlier in the week, the New York Times put the “Times Select” subscription website out of our collective misery (from Silicon Alley Insider via David Churbuck) . That left WSJ.com as the last successful subscription newspaper site. Now this word from Reuters: LONDON (Reuters) – News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch has said he might make the Wall Street Journal’s Web site free, a shift that could compel Pearson to do the same with the online version of its Financial Times. [...]