Digital Subscribers Way Up for News Corp. in UK, But Print Readers Steadily Down

Zacks: "News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, which began charging readers for online content for The Times of London and Sunday Times of London, in early July 2010, witnessed a surge in the number of digital subscribers -- up approximately 60% during a four-month period, Bloomberg reports." BUT: Print subscriber numbers are down, a 12.1% fall in the past year. Digital readers pay considerably less than print readers. Digital subscribers pay 8.67 pounds per month, while newsstand buyers pay 8.70 pounds per week. FURTHER NOTE: The paywall in question is non-porous, as opposed to the one just launched by The New York Times. Very different animal. Much easier for would-be readers to "game" the latter without paying.

Kindle Will Bypass New York Times Paywall

PCWorld: "When there's a paywall, there's a way, and there are no shortages of methods to dodge or dissemble The New York Times' new content subscription paywall. Even as the Old Gray Lady attempts to shut down loophole-exploiters, like the renegade Twitter feeds reposting NYT content so readers don't have to pay, more procedures sprout by the day. ... "

That was quick: Four lines of code is all it takes for The New York Times’ paywall to come tumbling down

Josh Benton, Nieman Journalism Lab: "The New York Times paywall is costing the newspaper $40-$50 million to design and construct, Bloomberg has reported. And it can be defeated through four lines of Javascript." Read Josh's interesting piece and then check NYTClean. Couldn't be easier.

Paywall for The New York Times Set for March 28

ReadWriteWeb via NYTimes: "The New York Times has finally announced the terms and pricing for its paywall that will go into effect beginning March 28. The paywall is porous, meaning that you'll be able to read 20 articles a month without having to pay. ... "

New York Times Paywall Latest

Mashable: "Bloomberg's source claims that subscribers to the print version of NYT will get full access to the online service as well. Furthermore, president of the New York Times Scott Heekin-Canedy said last month that the price for access to the web edition would be comparable to the Kindle subscription, which probably means it will be just a tad lower than $20 a month. The paywall, which was scheduled to go up this January, is a reversed approach from what NYT was doing so far: right now, it charges for archived and editorial content while the new content is free. With the paywall up, a set number of articles will remain free each month for non-subscribers, but anything over that number will require a monthly subscription. ... "

I'd love to see the p&l assumptions for this, especially the Times's forecasted sign-up and retention rates. And I wonder whether the edition behind the paywall will be ad-free. Probably not. Should be interesting to watch. Bear in mind that the Times's previous attempt to charge for "premium content" (aka, Maureen Dowd, for those who consider her ramblings readable) was an incredible flop.

Dallas Morning News To Erect Paywall in February

Justin Ellis, Nieman Journalism Lab: " ... The move is not entirely a surprise given that other large metro papers, The New York Times and the Boston Globe, are developing paywalls. It’s also less of a surprise since A.H. Belo, parent company of the News, said in 2009 that it was considering switching some of its papers to paid sites. ... "

Brill: 2011 Will Bring eBook Battles, Paywall Successes, and a New Model for Long-Form Articles

The Nieman Journalism Lab presents predictions from Journalism Online co-founder and long-time journalism entrepreneur Steve Brill.

Newsweek Weds Daily Beast? Good Luck - David Carr - NYTimes.com

My view precisely, via NY Times: "Putting together The Daily Beast and Newsweek makes little financial sense, includes not much in the way of editorial synergies — is it The News Beast or The Daily Week? — and marries two properties that have almost nothing in common other than the fact that they both lose lots of money."

News Corp.'s Murdoch Predicts Ad Changes for Digital Newspapers

Bloomberg: "'Digital news will look like cable channels with affiliated revenue,' [James, not Rupert] Murdoch said at a media conference in Monaco today. Titles will compete for ad revenue across this market and media buyers will 'make a big commitment' to purchase advertising, rather than making bookings for just a month at a time, he said. News Corp.’s U.K. titles the Times and Sunday Times erected paywalls in July, which reduced the number of readers and advertisers on the sites. Murdoch this month said these newspapers have more than 105,000 paying online customers, and today characterized paying readers as 'more engaged.' ..."

Times of London Gains Paying Web Site Readers

NYTimes.com: "The News Corporation said on Tuesday that it had gained 105,000 paying customers for the digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times of London since it started charging for access to their Web sites this summer. The company said about half of those additions were regular, active subscribers to the newspapers’ Web sites, iPad application or Amazon Kindle edition. The rest were occasional purchasers. Another 100,000 readers have activated free digital accounts that are included in print subscriptions to the papers, the News Corporation said. The company’s initiative has been closely watched among media analysts and advertisers because The Times and Sunday Times are among the first prominent general-interest newspapers to start charging for their digital content. ... "