The New York Times has scrapped its subscription based service which leaves the Wall Street Journal and the FT as the only remaining mainstream newspaper sites to charge readers for premium access. Murdoch has hinted that the WSJ may soon go the same way, allowing total access to traditionally highly-prized media content.
Straight Up Search discussed the moves, concluding that “The subscription-based model of generating revenue is a dying practice” where restricted access has now been shown to limit revenues. It points towards ad-supported download services in other areas, such as music, where the likes of We7 is gaining ground with new free-to-user models.
The Guardian concludes “Debate over” and points to the tempting $350-$450m advertising pool which will open up to the WSJ if it makes the move.
[...] As mentioned last month there is a battle going on in the online US news space and Silicon Alley Insider at least see the Guardian as one to watch, proclaiming it to be ‘More bad news for NYT et al’. [...]
[...] The charges have stirred controversy – new books can be bought for $9.99, newspapers and magazine subscriptions from $1.25-14.99 a month, and blog subscriptions at around a dollar or two a month. So are people really going to pay for blogs that they are used to reading for free? As mentioned earlier this month, only a few newspapers are still operating on a subscription model for their online content. [...]