Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A story of a really high pay wall, with really low results

Newsday (corrected from original version) has had very poor results with its pay wall. Only 35 subscriptions since it was instituted. There's a little more to the numbers than that, but still pretty grim. People have become far too used to free news content. (Hat tip to Jan for the link).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Every mag and paper has to start charging for their online content.. As long as most of them aren't doing this, people will go where they can get it free.

Anonymous said...

Jim, It's Newsday, not Newsweek.

http://www.observer.com/2010/media/after-three-months-only-35-subscriptions-newsdays-web-site

Anonymous said...

Hey Jim,
I'm pretty sure that was Newsday (the Long Island paper), not Newsweek.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a tad off topic, but what is the differance of being fired and laid off? Just wondering?

Anonymous said...

Fired is permanent -- unless overturned in arbitration or a lawsuit -- and implies employee misconduct or poor performance. Being laid off carries no such negative connotations, generally more than one employee is involved in layoffs, and layoffs can be indefinite, meaning in some cases the employees actually return to work when work becomes available -- not as the result of a lawsuit.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps two payment systems:

One for those who want print subscription, which will automatically give them access to the online content.

Another, less expensive one for those who want the online content only. This would be ideal for people who live in other states/countries but still want to keep up with what's going on "back home".