The New York Times has just announced that they'll no longer be charging for access to parts of their website at midnight tonight. Good news for all you web junkies, myself included, who don't like paying for any service when you can get it for free on the Internet. The genie came out of the bottle about the time you got your first taste of the Internet for free. My hope is that the genie never finds it's way back into the bottle...
The Times was selling their TimesSelect service for $7.95 a month, $49.95 a year. Their website has about 13 million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. They had 227,000 subscribers to TimesSelect and generated $10 million in revenue. Nice money, right? Guess what they discovered? More than that number of subscribers came to their website from search engines and links instead of coming to NYTimes.com. The indirect readers brought more page views and increased advertising revenues. Vivian L. Schiller, Sr. vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com says "What wasn't anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, Yahoo and others". And here's what Colby Atwood of Borrell Associates, a media research firm says about advertising vs. subscription revenue, "In the long run, the advertising side will dominate"...
Now that the Times has dropped their subscription fee will others follow suit? The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company) is the only major newspaper in the country that charges for access to most of its website. Their one million paying readers generate about $65 million in revenue but Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman has talked of possibly making access to the Journal free online. The Financial Times charges for select material like the Times has and the Los Angeles Times tried it in 2005 but quickly dropped the idea. By the way, the New York Times will reimburse their TimesSelect subscribers on a prorated basis...
This is another wake-up call for Radio, which for the most part, does a poor job of selling website advertising. There are 2 free tabloids here with a combined circulation of about 500,000-600,000. You know why over half a million people read these tabloids? Because they're free. They provide a short, concise look at the current news, sports and weather with some local, in-depth features and guess what? They're free. And how do you suppose these newspapers survive? They sell advertising. If you're not making money with your website, you're losing a great revenue source...
10 Timeline Memories:
- 1851] Premiered on this date: Speaking of the Times, the first issue of The New York Times is published...1927] The Mother Ship has landed: The Columbia Broadcasting System debuts with a network of 47 stations. The name of the company is later shortened to CBS...1963] The following TV shows debuted on this date: "The Patty Duke Show" which airs for 3 years and here's the show open: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOpNrb-9U7o 1965] "I Dream of Jeannie" starring Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. This series runs for 5 seasons and here's the show open: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNg-xClEnqM ...1965] "Get Smart" starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon with a run of 5 years plus syndication forever and here's that open and theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDiRIjv0yf0 ...
- 1947] Separate but equal: The U.S. Air Force is established as a separate military branch by the National Security Act...
- 1947] Country comes to Carnegie Hall: Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff perform at Carnegie Hall. It's the first Country show at the venue and is recognized as the first time major Country acts perform in New York City...
- 1955] What's your name?: "The Ed Sullivan Show" is the new name of "The Toast Of The Town" on CBS-TV since 1948...
- 1960] Fidel visits the Apple: Fidel Castro stays at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem where he meets with Malcolm X. He also makes TV appearances and is generally treated like the hero he wasn't...
- 1961] "Happy Trails": U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold dies at 56 in a plane crash in Rhodesia (now Zambia)...1963] The New York Mets play their last game at the Polo Grounds. They open at Shea Stadium in 1964...1975] Jimi Hendrix dies of a drug overdose at 27...1994] Tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis is the victim of an accidental carbon monoxide poisoning at 40...
- 1969] No tip-toeing around: Tiny Tim announces his engagement to 'Miss Vicki" on the "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson". Johnny extends TT & MV an invitation to get married on the show which they do in December...
- 1975] Gotcha: Patty Hearst is captured in San Mateo (CA). She will be convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison for her role in SLA crimes. Jimmy Carter will commute the sentence and she only serves 22-months...
- 1977] Captain Courageous: Ted Turner captains the Courageous to victory, sweeping Australia in the 24th 'America's Cup' in Newport (RI). Twenty years later on this same date (1997) Turner announces that he will donate $1 billion to the U.N. over the next 10 years...
- 1994] Talkin' baseball: The Ken Burns produced "Baseball" series of specials premieres on PBS, making a star of Buck O'Neill, a former Negro League player...
Music Memories:
- 1976] Released on this date: "More Than A Feeling" - Boston. Here's a live version of the tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GItbyK28-U ...
Commentary...
Congratulations to WCBS-FM. David Hinckley's New York Daily News column has extrapolated figures for August that show they doubled their Jack figures of June (36,900 to 67,300) in average quarter hour shares, 25-54. This ranks them #2 in that demo for the month, trailing WBLS which is #1. They also went from 1.9 to 4.8 (with Z100 #1) in total listeners to place them #2. Now this is only a monthly but is indicative of a huge jump when the Summer book comes out in October. Well done people...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Jada Pinkett Smith (36), Aisha Tyler (37), James Gandolfini (46), Frankie Avalon (67), Fred Willard (68), Jimmie Rodgers (74) and Robert Blake a.k.a. Mickey Gubitosi (74)...
Timeline Countdown: 5 days until autumn in New York, 15 days until the MLB playoffs and 36 days until the first game of the World Series...
