The New York Times has announced that is ending its Times Select program after two years and will allow free ad-supported access to works by its columnists and to portions the newspaper’s archives in an effort to capture revenue from online advertising. The article states:
But our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising,” said Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the site, NYTimes.com.
What changed, The Times said, was that many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYtimes.com. These indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.
“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,” Ms. Schiller said.
This will leave the Wall Street Journal as the only major American newspaper charging for online access to its content. When News Corporation bought it, many analysts discussed models in free ad supported access could bring more revenue than pay access.