Earlier this month, The New York Times said it would introduce a paid model for its NYTimes.com site at the beginning of 2011. According to the publication’s statement, the plan gives readers free access to a set number of articles per month and charges them only once they exceed that number.
The company announced the formation of its payment team this week.
The model, which is similar to FT.com’s strategy offering readers free access for up to 10 articles a month, delineates publishers intention to make a profit off their digital offerings.
“We think it should just be a paying landscape,” Mackay says of the news. “We just think that if you’ve got great content and it’s in demand, people should be prepared to pay for it … We’re delighted that other people think the model we’ve adopted is one they’d like to choose for themselves.”
Off camera, Mackay explained that, under the FT’s revised payment model, readers have the option to purchase individual articles through micropayments facilitated by PayPal. “I think it will mop up a lot of unsubscribed users accessing a certain amount of stories a month on FT.com. This way they can pay by the story, and hopefully eventually take out a proper subscription,” she says.
The Wall Street Journal last year announced its plan to implement a micropayment system for individual articles.
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