Comments on: The Times’ Paywall and Newsletter Economics

By: Does one page per day really make you a heavy user? « excapite

Does one page per day really make you a heavy user? « excapite — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:04:32 +0000

[...] we apply the rate of conversion calculated by Clay Shirky for the times online pay wall (i.e. 0.25%) this translates into about 100,000 [...]

By: This Week in Review: An objectivity object lesson, a paywall is panned, and finding the blogger’s voice | Mark Coddington

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 23:15:01 +0000

[...] Shirky used The Times’ paywall as a basis for some smart thoughts about why newspaper paywalls don’t work in general. The Times’ paywall represents old [...]

By: ¿Quién filtrará una exclusiva a un diario con muros de pago? « ladoblehélice

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:56:03 +0000

[...] Todo lo cual, ya lo había dicho Clay Shirky hace semanas. [...]

By: Creating an online community | Margaret Puls

Creating an online community | Margaret Puls — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 04:18:25 +0000

[...] comment and bars the IP address from future posting. On another note, it is interesting to watch News Corporation’s moves to shut down access to content (including sharing stories on Facebook) of news sites such as the New York Times – with the [...]

By: Why the iPad Newspaper is Doomed – Valley Wag « Opportunity to Excel

Why the iPad Newspaper is Doomed – Valley Wag « Opportunity to Excel — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:48:09 +0000

[...] Then there’s the recent paywalling of the Times of London, which NYU’s Clay Shirky calculates has brought down web traffic around 97 percent, attracting 40,000 dedicated subscribers at [...]

By: “The Daily”, premier quotidien uniquement sur iPad « La veille d'ERS

“The Daily”, premier quotidien uniquement sur iPad « La veille d'ERS — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:50:34 +0000

[...] et de The Sun en Grande-Bretagne. Les premiers chiffres de The Times ne sont guère encourageants. Comme le calcule Clay Shirky, on est passé de 6 millions d’utilisateurs, certes gratuits, à une … (The Times faisait état de 50.000 transactions en 4 mois, pas d’abonnements). Ce qui fait passer [...]

By: Crosbie Fitch

Crosbie Fitch — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:31:51 +0000

The real question is not how to save newspapers (irrespective of their centuries long business model), but how journalists and their readers are going to exchange work for money, how that future market for journalism is going to operate.

By: Paperless newspaper is coming out | Yang in USA

Paperless newspaper is coming out | Yang in USA — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:38:16 +0000

[...] out subscribers to the print product, as well as Kindle and iPad users — as the digital thinker and writer Clay Shirky recently did — and the number of actual opt-in customers could be in the low tens of thousands. That compares [...]

By: Pascoe

Pascoe — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:02:10 +0000

After reading the blog above I had an idea for a different approach. I hate to call it a third way but perhaps that’s what it is. My idea revolves around retaining the free access model while enabling news media companies to benefit from the increased advertising revenue which comes from a more sophisticated analytical base i.e. the type of psychographic and behavioural data collected by Facebook.

It runs a bit like this: Instead of charging people to access the site, they would instead be asked to register. This registration process would include the standard demographic information, complemented by some richer psychographic information. Ideally, this should take no more than a few minutes.

The registration process would also ask users to commit to answering some market research surveys or polls, perhaps three or four times a year. The data from which could be used to build richer, and more valuable, customer profiles etc.

The model is based on the idea of having a grown up discussion with site users about the fact that the sites they use need to generate income to continue in their current form. If they are not keen on paying a financial cost then they should be willing to pay with a bit of their time and thoughts.

The payoff for the sites is a more valuable offer to advertisers and for the user there could be many such as: a tailored home page, targeted advertising, continued free access, priority access to certain features, perhaps getting some information before others, having more of a say in the development of the site etc.

The idea is fleshed out more in my blogpost but this gives an idea.

It may be that the current model is simply unsustainable but I think this approach, if it generates a sufficient increase in advertising revenue, could work.

By: Revisiting Pay-Walls « Unbridled Truth

Revisiting Pay-Walls « Unbridled Truth — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:14:36 +0000

[...] that is not the case. The Times and Sunday Times are, in the end, generic newspapers. Clay Shirky hits the nail on the head: [Pay-walls] don’t expand revenue from the existing audience, they contract the audience to that [...]