Extracted from an article by Peter Preston:
IT LOOKS as though a giant brick knocked out a paywall. Three months ago, Newsday on Long Island, one of America’s big dailies, started charging readers $5 a week to visit its website. This was the digital future, embraced by Rupert Murdoch and the New York Times, as announced last week, put to its sternest, most straightforward test. With the clearest result: humiliation.
As of last week, 35 brave souls had signed up for newsday.com. Make that $4m spent by Newsday’s owners upgrading online and only $9,000 a year coming back. Last October’s unique user figure for the site, 2.2 million, had shrivelled by 700,000 before the end of 2009. This looks like the can’t-pay-won’t-pay debate replayed as farce. Surely those who hate walls of all kinds can begin to rejoice?
Or, at a second and more searching glance, start to shiver, for there’s a hidden factor that turns the argument on its head – and maybe gives the legions of Rupert a flying start as they finalise their charging plans. For the family that owns Newsday also owns Optimum Cable, which reckons to supply 75% of Long Island homes with its TV services. When you buy your Optimum link (or a Newsday print subscription) you also get Newsday online as an added extra. That’s why December’s paywall-guarded unique figure was 1.5 million, not 35. That’s where Newsday may make a killing out of charging.
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