The Times paywall – some official numbers
Jinfo Blog

3rd November 2010

By Penny Crossland

Item

News International’s detractors and other newspaper publishers planning to put their online content behind a paywall (like the New York Times for example) have been keen to find out about The Times’ paid-for subscriber numbers. Stung by various estimates published in recent days by Nielsen, Hitwise and paidcontent, which showed a (predictably) drastic decline in online visitors and a poor conversion rate into actual subscribers, (http://digbig.com/5bcswf and http://digbig.com/5bcswe) News International yesterday revealed (http://digbig.com/5bcswd) that The Times site had achieved 105,000 digital sales since the introduction of the paywall, which includes users purchasing content via iPads and Kindles. So, is the experiment working? The answer is that it’s too early to tell. The figures provided by News International include one-off digital sales and are not actual subscribers. However, the publisher seems to be pleased so far and analysts have estimated that digital revenues will reach around £5million. As industry observers have pointed out, News International will know a lot more about its digital subscribers than its print subscribers and will be able to target them more effectively with advertising. What is perhaps more interesting in James Murdoch’s statement (http://digbig.com/5bcswc) accompanying the release of digital sales figures was the announcement of plans to introduce targeted digital editions of The Times aimed at a non-UK audience alongside bundling of information services aimed at specific industry sectors such as banking. These plans tie in with the encouraging uptake of Times content via apps and E-readers (see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e30216 for an earlier posting on the subject). Maybe the debate should not be so much about free versus paid-for content, but about packaging of content? This idea has also been taken up in recent days by the brave launch of ‘i’, a new paper launched by the UK’s Independent newspaper that is aimed at commuters. Described as “a paper for people daunted by the sheer size and scale of other daily national newspaper offerings” , its aim is to offer digested news and analysis for those with limited time. Interestingly, ‘i’ will not have a website – content is available via Twitter instead (account@theipaper) As the Guardian’s Steve Hewlett points out (http://digbig.com/5bcswb) the new paper is not offering new content, but a new service aimed at a targeted audience, “in a way that suits them when and where they want it”. Targeted information, packaged for convenience – that sounds very familiar from an information professionals point of view. Isn’t that a service we have always been advocating? For other Livewire postings on the Times paywall see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e30240, http://www.vivavip.com/go/e29823 and http://www.vivavip.com/go/e29136

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