‘TimesSelect’ nears 200,000 web-only subscribers on 1st anniversary
Nearly 200,000 people have signed up and paid a special fee to use The New York Times’ TimesSelect service since it launched one year ago, the newspaper revealed Wednesday. The service allows access to all of the newspaper’s Op-Ed columnists, archives, and other features that are unavailable to non-subscribers. Since it launched on Sept. 19, 2005, the paid service has drawn 198,690 users who do not subscribe to the print paper, but pay a special online fee for access. That is up from 156,000 in January and 183,000 in June, suggesting growth may be levelling off. Since January, the Times reports the service has brought in about USD 6m (EUR 4,7m) in additional revenue. Those online-only paid users account for roughly 37 per cent of the total TimesSelect audience, which includes another 338,310 users, or 63%, who receive free access to the TimesSelect service as part of their print subscription, but who must also register. That means a total of 537,000 people have registered to use the service in the first year, a number the paper considers successful. (Editor and Publisher,September 22, 2006)
Very interesting info. It sort of debunks the myth that people may not pay up for online newspapers. This also confirms my view that internet hasn’t spelled the death of newspaper… it lives on in the digital form too… in fact coexisting with the physical form.
Comment by Pradeep Nair — September 27, 2006 @ 8:29 pm