The printed newspapers have been in turmoil for several years. With the development of the Internet and of new devices like the Ipad, fewer people buy their daily newspapers. Thus, the main financial source for newspapers, that is advertising, declined rapidly and forced them to either stop publishing or re-think a new viable business model. Indeed, the media world is certainly not only about journalists and reporters. They are at the core value, the ones who make the reports newsworthy but the most important decision maker remains the financial division. But, how can a business survive (because let’s face it, a newspaper is a business selling information) when its traditional consumers are deserting?
Today’s newspapers face a strange paradox: printed sales are decreasing dramatically while the demand for news is unexpectedly growing. For instance, The New York Times has seen its typical sales slump whereas its website became ranked amongst the 20 most visited global news sites. The industry clearly needed to change its structure and it tried. Most newspapers went online, created twitter accounts and offered a wider variety of articles on their website to attract new readers. Nevertheless, it is coming to a point where the advertising revenues from both the printed newspapers and the websites are not sufficient enough to cover the costs. Therefore, newspapers started to implement digital subscriptions. The Wall Street Journal was one of the firsts to try it and so far, it’s worked. Yet, a lot of others did fail.
In March 1st, The New York Times announced it was also going for digital subscription and the debate started heating all the conversations. It is indeed a major risk but necessary to its survival seems to think its chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Its pay model is somehow clever. As the NYT’s traffic consists of mainly casual readers, they will not be financially penalized for a reader will be allowed 20 articles a week. Then, the loyal readers will have to pay a certain fee to consult more.
“The challenge now is to put a price on our work without walling ourselves off from the global network, to make sure we continue to engage with the widest possible audience” stated Sulzberger. Keeping a wide audience will definitely be the biggest challenge. Some people might be tempted to go to another website. We have been used for a couple of years now to get the news for free so changing consumer’s behaviours will be complicated. Moreover, the competition in the industry is ruthless. The choices for the consumer are unlimited.
The NYT’s move is a bold one. The Wall Street Journal has managed to survive to its change but it also offers a different content. It mainly focuses on business and financial news. The NYT is one of the most important and most trusted newspapers but it covers everything with no particular field of expertise. It does have a lot of assets though: excellent journalists (and 104 Pulitzer Prices), professional articles and worldwide reputation for its quality. But, will people be willing to pay?
In a world where prices are sometimes more important than quality, the New York Times is most likely going to suffer from this pay model. In a few years, we’ll see what turned out to be more valuable for our societies: quality for trustworthy news or more superficial but cheaper information. Either ways, we’ll have to adapt.
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Frantic Bubble 