My favorite newspaper and arguably one of the finest news gathering organizations of all time committed a kind of public suicide today, announcing they really don’t get it and will insist upon the impossible instead.
Beginning March 28th they will charge again for online access, ignoring the irrefutable truth that digital media, service and intellectual property is free now and will always be free in some form or other going forward. The paid news model is dead. The way we gather and vet news will have to change.
It’s true the WallStreetJournal operates a successful online pay model and the Times apparently hopes to follow suit.
But unlike the WSJ, the NYTimes doesn’t offer state-of-the-minute financial information upon which good money can be made. They offer news, that’s it, and there will always be alternatives offered free online to garner market share.
Back in the days of paper scarcity (when you really had to pay) the NewYorkTimes was our news of record. But today we live in the digital world of “one mouse click” ubiquity and nothing digital is ever scarce. Behind this new paywall ad revenue will plummet as readership tanks, losing circulation money as well.
I loved the old grey lady but the people in charge are too old to understand this and she’s in her final throes. Time marches on, even if the New York Times will not. Alas.
What do YOU think? Are YOU gonna pay to read the TIMES?
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