The paywall debate is about to move from words to actions. In the biggest large-scale test of whether a news website can successfully charge readers for access, The New York Times is about to announce an online subscription model, New York magazine reports.

So, will it work?

Much of the answer depends on how exactly it is structured, which we don’t yet know. What Gabriel Sherman reports is that it will be a metered model, where a user can see a certain number of free pages before being forced to subscribe.

What that number is will make a big difference. NYTimes.com draws 16.6 million uniques a month, each visiting an average of four times and spending a total of  17:17 time on site, according to the latest Nielsen numbers reported by E&P in November. Nielsen doesn’t report the number of pages viewed, but you could guess how many someone reads in four four-minute sessions — I’d say 5 to 10 pages.

So, does the NYT turn on the meter after five pageviews, forcing most readers to decide whether to pay? Or does it leave a high threshold of 10-15 free views, allowing average readers to stay free and just taxing the very biggest consumers?

That pageview threshold will be the most-important to watch when details are announced. Secondary is what price NYT sets for an online subscription — that is somewhat important, but studies have shown that any act of charging triggers a flight of readers.

 E-mail

 Delicious

 Digg

Share

|

Subscribe to posts