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New York Times Co. President and Chief Executive Janet L. Robinson • Discussing the change of the New York Times’ model from free to paid and leaving an interesting tidbit in the midst: Tweeted/refered links to the Times will work exactly the way they do now. Which means that hitting the paywall actually requires digging into the site. We’re intrigued. (hat tip Charles Apple) source
The gray lady’s change from free to pay makes sense. Simply put, if there’s one newspaper in the U.S. that can blaze the trail for online pay walls and get it right, it’s the New York Times. Here’s why:
one They’re big enough to take the kind of risks that smaller papers can’t.
two They understand the Web better than most papers – there’s no tired cynicism here.
three They get the sharing nature of the Web, and so does their planned model.
four They’ve had a long history of online innovation already, such as Times Skimmer.
five They have content that’s good enough that people will pay for it. Duh. source
We’re in a megatransition. It hasn’t ever felt like anyone has the answer. My macro feeling is that I’m glad I had this job at this time. It was great working at the paper when it was on dead trees and could pay for itself.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman • Discussing whether he feels new technology has shown a next path for journalism. It’s something his bosses are currently feeling significant pressure about. According to New York Magazine, the plan seems to be a change from free to pay, using a so-called “metered” system that requests payment based on usage. It’s akin to what the Financial Times does – read a few articles, and a pay wall finally comes up. Since we post a lot about the Times, for example, and think it’s a high-quality publication, we’d probably get a subscription. source
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is ready drop Google, based on this interview. (It’s long but the meat of what we care about is right at the beginning.) However, as paidContent points out, he doesn’t completely understand how the Wall Street Journal uses Google to promote stories even with its pay wall. (Instead of just getting chunks of stories, you get the first couple free, then get blocked.) Regarding the evolution of newspapers to paid content, Murdoch says, “Everyone can afford a newspaper. They’re the cheapest things in the world and what you get out of it is fabulous. And it will be even cheaper when you get it electronically.” We hope so, Rupe.source
Can I imagine content going behind a pay wall? Absolutely. And, yes, we are in conversations about that.
Tom Curley • The short-sighted, probably fat CEO of Associated Press who doesn’t see the big picture and wants to start charging for content. Good God, if the industry is thinking like this, maybe Marc Andreessen is onto something. • source