The Times should concentrate on mobile
The free vs. paid-for content debate was re-ignited recently when it was revealed that The Times and Sunday Times websites will charge £1 per day or £2 per week to access their content from June. Last September, News Corp CEO and chairman Rupert Murdoch got the ball rolling when he unveiled plans to extend the Wall Street Journal’s online paywall to Blackberry and iPhone users.
We are used to consuming content online for free and once we’re used to getting something for free, it’s very hard to start charging for it. Obviously the success of numerable freemium models out there proves that a hybrid model can be a sustainable model, but by putting up a pay wall (predominantly in the face of Google), News International are taking a big risk.
Firstly, an awful lot of traffic is generated from twitter links and blogs and people will cease to link to Times and Sunday Times stories in the knowledge that only those who are paid subscribers would be able to view the content. Secondly, the reading habits of those who view news online tend to consume shorter stories online and read the longer features in the actual paper. Given that online news is effectively a commodity it would suggest that users are far more likely to read the news on the BBC or alternative sites rather than pay to view content on the Times. Not good news for their ad sales team.
Also, publishers have been moving heavily into mobile content where users are more willing to pay than online (the success of the Guardian iPhone app is testament to this). Plus, tablets such as the Kindle or iPad offer publishers a big opportunity to create new revenue streams to replace dwindling print revenues. A more prudent move might have been to concentrate efforts and investment on this big growth sector rather than trying to turn the tanker that is free online content.
The Times does have a strong brand and will certainly convince some of its readership to pay for the online content, but I suspect the move will do more harm than good to its business.
You can meet Steve Wing, Guardian’s head of mobile at Camerjam’s M-Publishing event on 9 June in London