by Gina Christo, News Editor
The New York Times will begin limiting free access to the articles on their website as of March 28. On March 17, at the top of The Times website was a letter to the readers from publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. The letter informed readers that digital subscriptions would soon be a requirement.
The Times stated that switching to digital subscriptions was an important investment the readers could make in the quality of journalism. The change will primarily affect those who are daily readers of the website and those who frequently use the mobile applications.
Under the subscription model information on its website will not be completely limited. Readers may still view up to 20 articles each month without charge. These articles are not limited to written pieces, but include slide shows, videos and other features. After 20 articles, a window will pop up alerting viewers that they have reached their limit and they will then ask you to subscribe. In terms of smart phones and tablets, the News section of The Times will remain free; however, all other sections will require a subscription. Finally, readers who find The Times articles through blogs, social media like Facebook or Twitter, or through search engines like Google† will be able to read those articles even if they have reached their monthly limit on the website. Depending on the search engine, users will have a daily limit of free links to articles in the Times.
There are three different subscription payment plans. Readers can pay $15 every four weeks for access to the website an a mobile phone application, or they can pay $195 for a year. Readers can pay $20 a month for web access and an iPad app, or $260 for an entire year. Finally, there is a $35 all-access plan which totals $455 a year. All subscribers who get home delivery of the actual newspapers will have free and unlimited access across all Times digital platforms, which include the Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook.
If the Times is successful, it will be setting a precedent for the entire newspaper world. Newspaper companies have supplied free Internet access to their readers for years now in hope that online advertising would supplement the income they lose through digital subscriptions. While online advertising has grown, it has not increased as quickly as traditional print has declined. Economic analyst Ken Doctor stated in the Times, “This is practically a do-or-die year. The financial pressure on newspapers is steady or increasing. They are in an industry still receding. Newspapers are trying to pay down their debt, but they have fewer resources to do it.”
The largest and most obvious concern for turning a news website to subscriptions is the loss of readers. The Times, in particular, risks losing its regularly cited accomplishment of most visited newspaper website in the country. This distinction is important to their reputation as well as to their advertisers. However, revenue losses from† the decline in site traffic could be offset because advertisers are willing to pay a lot to market to a wealthier† audience.
The digital subscription could be financially beneficial for the organization, but it is concerning Americans. There are concerns that by making people pay a subscription fee, it is limiting the best journalism to those who are willing to pay for it. If this payment model is successful with the Times, it will be adopted by many other newspaper groups, which will then further limit the amount of news that will be public domain on the Internet.