The New York Times announced Wednesday afternoon that in 2011 it will offer online readers only a limited number of articles for free each month. In this “metered system,” once users reach their limit, they will be charged or denied access.
The Times optimistically presents this as bringing in another revenue stream on top of advertising. While this contradicts the long-held belief that pay walls destroy advertising revenue, it’s possible that the Times has an answer to this hidden in its new plan.
However, details on what access will cost or the exact article cap are scarce, and the balancing of these two variables while increasing revenue and keeping readers happy and dedicated will be a feat heretofore unseen in the online age.
Some will cheer this decision as a sign of newspapers standing up for their true worth. Others will scoff and quote lines of doom, preaching that people have only ever paid for the paper, not the words printed on it.
Either way, in our opinion, it’s better than waiting for the slow decay that the current model has promoted.
By making a move, the Times may hasten its own demise or it may eventually discover the model that will save itself and the few papers in its league, who would surely follow suite.
Ultimately, if the business of large-scale journalism is to stay alive, it’s going to have to stay on its feet.
