NY Times knocks wall, Ireland.com builds?

Just a week after we wrote about the Irish Times adding a second pay barrier, the New York Times reported on their now demolished pay wall for all articles after 1987. (vie tomrafteryit.net)

Meanwhile, another US newspaper currently operating a pay wall looks to be going the same way. "That looks like the way we're going," Rupert Murdoch said when talking of the online version of the Wall Street Journal. (vie Greenslade)

Although speculation has been growing since News Corp's first moves to buy Dow Jones, Murdoch's latest comment are the clearest sign yet that the wsj.com's pay wall will be also dropped once News Corp takes full control of Dow Jones.

“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,” said Vivian L Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com. The NY Times have learned lessons, Murdoch and co also have a real understanding how the internet works... but, does the Irish Times?

Last year we reported how the Irish Times said that Ireland.com is a success, and nearly a break even levels. Page impressions were at 15m at the time, that's down from 25m pre paid subscription. Larger amounts of users is really what advertisers want to hear about. And with online advertising growing and broadband usage growing in Ireland, the IT would want to be asking is it missing out on growth, and readers who may become loyal to other news sites.

On another level, the Irish Times is, apparently, "an independent newspaper primarily concerned with serious issues for the benefit of the community throughout the whole of Ireland, free from any form of personal or party political, commercial, religious or other sectional control," maybe they think less people reading the Irish Times content is for the benefit of the community throughout the whole of Ireland?

ALSO READ: Is circulation revenue worth having now that advertisers love free titles?

Comments

[Roisin]

The problem for The Irish Times is working how to knock down the pay-wall without looking like eejits. I think the NY Times thing may hasten things there, but remember that the Irish Times is one slow ship. Look at how long it took them to get blogging and even there, it's half-hearted and mostly down to the enthusiasms of the individual bloggers. The Irish Times needs a senior figure who really gets the internet and allow him or her to dictate the direction. Then again, their main Irish rivals are just as clueless in that regard.

[Aaron]

The thing that works in favour of the Irish Times paywall is that there's not much alternative Irish material on the web of that quality. The NYT, on the other hand, was being attacked from all sides.

[Eoghan]

Roisin: I disagree that the Irish Times blogs are "half-hearted". For one they are updated more frequently than most of the blogs listed on the "Irish Journalists who blog" list (http://www.blurredkeys.com/2007/02/adam_maguire_fr.html).

And if you are to measure their success in terms of links from other sites that they have attracted the Irish Times blogs have been a phenomenon - the IT blogs now attract over 14% of ALL links to Ireland.com, and they've managed that in the space of 6 months. Such massive 'link love' is going to be reflected in increases in search engine referrals received by ireland.com, which as we know (and NYT.com certainly knows) in the right hands can mean ad incomes that are greater than paid subscriptions. My blog has a more detailed analysis of this side of the success of the Irish Times blogs: http://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Default.aspx?tabid=75&EntryID=356

I fully agree Roisin though that the IT needs a senior figure who is clued into how things are evolving, media-wise, on the WWW and allow them to dictate the direction. I fear nothing much will happen (or it will happen too slowly) without some such figure steering the ship.

[dav]

Well anything that reduces their dependence on advertising must be a good thing, no?

[Opus_One]

The Irish Times has had its day..... I would not consider having that publication in my house. Most young Irish people agree that it is not a newspaper that they even consider as a news source any longer. Check out the really nasty stunt that Irish Times media just pulled via their myhome site:

http://www.irishpropertywatch.com/

Now if that is not a reason to put young people off having anything to do with the Irish Times then I dont know what is.