Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site

The New York Times announced today that it would stop charging for select content on its web site, a move that was made exactly two years ago.  I am a devout reader of the New York Times online and remember vividly when they made the decision to start charging for content.  I was also certain that this signaled one of the first moves on the Internet to a fee for content-based model.  I guess you can’t always be right.  What’s interesting about the Times’ decision is the fact that it’s based on traffic lost from search engines like Google and Yahoo.  Basically, the Times recognizes that it can earn more income from advertising sales generated through search engine traffic than it can by charging for its content (roughly $10 million a year).  I don’t think that you can underplay the significance of this calculation and the underlying importance of search engine traffic, whether you’re a solo practitioner or the New York Times.