Josh Stern

How Google Killed Web Subscriptions

The thesis of this article - that Google search is the main problem for NY Times Select and other attepts to monetize the NYT's online presence - is in the right neighborhood, but at the wrong address. The problem for Times Select is that, in the context of all the information sources on the internet, that product isn't competitive at the price they want to charge for it. The Internet offers a very different competitive landscape than what the print edition faces. The costs to publish something internationally on the web are incidental, and on the web it is easy for readers and secondary sites to aggregate content from many different sources, picking the most interesting sources in each area of interest. Participating in 'searched for' news is definitely one part of that market, but it's a small part. In order to charge fees on the Internet, the NYT should consider offering less costly al a carte choices in just a few areas where they have a lot of expertise, being more realistic about the competitive value of those offerings. It would make more sense for them to produce greater quantity of content on the Internet - where publishing cost is much cheaper - and pick only the best of those items to use in their print edition.