NYTimes Introduces Paid Content Product Today
The New York Times launched TimesSelect today, a paid-content subscription product that requires visitors to pay to read op-ed columnists like Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, and others.
Laura doesn't like it, but her problems are logistical.
Soccer Dad already has a way around it.
I've seen that people are willing to pay for certain types of content when I worked on ESPN Insider, and in the short term, I think the product will generate cash for the Times.
But the Times didn't become influential because it generated cash; it became influential because the ideas that its writers expressed were valuable enough to spread. With TimesSelect, what they're doing is preventing their ideas from spreading through what is essentially a high-velocity channel used to disseminates ideas from their brightest minds. I think this product will fail in the long run, and it should be really interesting to see how this plays out.
Also, there's a summary of an interview with Martin Nisenholtz, SVP-Digital Operations, and Scott Heekin-Canedy, President & GM, The New York Times about TimesSelect over at Paidcontent.
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