“According to two senior New York Times officials, the announcement that the paper would be launching a metered pay model for its website has nothing to do with the upcoming release of the Apple tablet,” Gabriel Sherman reports for New York Magazine.
“The Apple tablet until now has been portrayed as a potential savior for old media, as publishers have rushed to ready tablet-ized versions of their publications. But despite the fevered speculation of just what the Apple device might be, publishers like the Times are taking a revised view about the tablet’s potential to reinvent their digital businesses,” Sherman reports. “With iTunes or an Apple-controlled online store, publishers will be cut off from their readers. Apple will handle payments and Apple will control all the lucrative demographic information that publishers collect to sell to their advertisers. The tablet may vastly improve the mobile reading experience, but in terms of providing a business model that publishers will leap to adopt, there’s a strong case to be made that the Times and others shouldn’t fall prey to the iTunes trap.”
“In announcing its semipermeable pay wall today, the Times is signaling that it wants to be in control of its vast readership and fully monetize its audience. Media writer David Carr made the point in his 1,400-word analysis of the meter announcement that ‘in the long run, [Apple and Amazon] would have controlled and benefited from the relationship far more than The Times.’ The paper may very well sell its content through Apple’s app store or some new iTunes-like service, but as much as they can, the paper wants the primary point of payments to come through the meter,” Sherman reports.
Read more in the full article here.
2 words… Rupert Murdoch
NYT is dead and doesn’t realize it.
Tough shit.
If you can’t create a device that revolutionizes the way you see your media then Apple deserves the benefits of its devices. End of story.
-Pi
With all due respect to the Old Gray Lady . . . who gives a flying fig what that dying propaganda rag thinks, says, or does. It ceased being the newspaper of record decades ago, and nothing–NOTHING–found inside its folds can, or should, be believed.
Rest In Peace, NYT. (And take the Boston Globe with you.)
Wow-the NYT might be signing their own death warrant.
Apparently “old media” like publishing and music distribution will not learn anything about “new media” until it’s too late.
Good riddance!
Did the Times own all the news stands? All the hotels? All the drug stores? All the myriad of other distribution points for their product?
The Times is as bassackward about their business model as they are about their editorial content.
4 more words… still a phantom product
“Times have Changed”
The NY Times will follow the greedy Music labels and will find that the old guard is on it’s way to hell. Instead of tapping into the current new potentials that will keep them in business and getting creative in reinventing their income revenue streams they will adamantly act like ostriches and prefer to strong arm their way into oblivion.
the irony of a disciple of Rand referring to anything else in all of history as “propaganda” is enough to make my day. thanks for that….
Looks like the NYT will be enjoying some humble pie after their Shultz burger…..
Subtracting the billing to an outside vendor vs. no one reading that rag and them closing the doors forever. No wonder these guy’s can’t run those companies.
Sorry, that was supposed be Sulz burger
I hit the wrong button
Randian, that is a very balanced point of view no doubt based on many reads of articles and follow up fact checking. So relieved there is someone like you to keep a measured finger on the truth pulse. Keep rollin’ Randy, sentinel of all that is true!
That just means fewer readers for them. If each paper and magazine has its own payment scheme, even every media group, then that is a MASSIVE barrier for people to try a publication.
Does the times have a known track record of excellent customer service for electronic micro payments? Do I really want my credit card info scattered across databases at 3 paper companies and 4 magazine media companies? NO! I want simple and easy, and Apple/iTunes gives me that in spades.
Say no at your own risk! There are additional millions a year to be made using this model that you will never see otherwise! Wise up NYT and other outlets. All it’s going to take is one or two publications to do it and THEY will benefit enormously, even if their business model changes. Apple saved music companies from their own demise, even if the exact certain concessions that are in fact very consumer friendly. Your dying business model could do A LOT WORSE (and is).
PISS ON THE NYT!
They are just a sheep, lib rag not worthy of asswipe. The most one-sided toilet paper in the USA, and their stock performance has been showing their worth.
America is sick of this rag that brown noses the far left and is out of touch with the rest of America.
Apple, tell them to shove it. We don’t need no stinking lib rag.