The New York Times Paywall

GROUP-7
GAURAV SHARMA(NMP-30)
HIMANSHU TIWARI(NMP-32)
ISHA DAS(NMP-33)

Introduction New York

Times
Founded on Sept 181851
By Henry J. Raymond & George Jones
By 2011 had won
106 Pulitzer Prices
Had turnover of $ 2.3 Bn.
Operating profit $ 57 Mn.

U.S. News Paper Industry & Trends

In 2009, Industry size $ 35 Bn.
5000 Players
Top 50 Players accounted for 75% of Business
Journalism Industry was getting disrupted

(Internet)
Moving from Offline to Online Content
Evolution of Digital disruption

New York Times Business

New York Times Media Group
New England Media Group
REGIONAL Media Group
About Group i.e. about.com & Other JVs

Online Subscription THE PAYWALL

First attempted by NY Times in 1996
Was priced @ $35 per month
Was dropped to not disturb the increasing internet

user traffic
Second attempt in 2005
TIMES SELECT priced @ $49.95
Touched 227 thousand paid subscriber base by 2007
Closed on Sept 2007 due to criticism of pay wall
approach
User base had access to similar content through
social media & blogs

BUSINESS CRISIS NEWSPAPER

INDUSTRY
Overall paper circulation was declining YOY
Advertisement revenues were declining
Detroit free press went weekly from daily
Ann Arbor went totally online
Wall street journal introduced paywall successfully
On contrary Times of London lost visitor traffic

from 2.79 Mn to 1.61 Mn.

Other media sectors suffered revenue loses due to
digital disruption
iPad was another new medium of consuming news

NYT FINACIALS 2008 TO 2011

Revenues

Operating Cost

Total Operating
Cost

Financials of the NYT Company ( $ millions)

2011
2010

Advertising
1221
1300
Circulation
941
931
Other
160
162
Total Revenues
2323
2393

Production Costs
957
962
SG &A
1020
1054
Depreciation and
Amortization
116
121

2009

1336
936
167
2440

1021
1153

2008

1771
910
258
2940

1310
1328

134

144

Operating Profit/Loss
Net Income/Loss

2308

74
20

2783

-41
-58

2094

57
-40

2137

234
108

Designing New Paywall NYT

Types of Platforms available:
All OR Nothing
Exclusive Content
Metered System
Device Specific Offers

NYT OPTED for:

Metered System Allowed 23 Articles per month,
extra on paid basis
Device Specific Offers Different schemes for devices
Partnered with Auto Manufacturer Lincoln for free
subscription

Leaky wall Concept

Those who directed through Search Engine limited

articles
Those through Social media unlimited access
Digital Pricing:
NYT + Smartphone $3.75
NYT + Smartphone $5.0
NYT + Smartphone + Tablet $8.75
Print Home Delivery Pricing:
7 Days $15.40
Friday - Sunday $10.80
Only Sunday $7.80
Monday- Friday $7.7

Results
Febraury 2012 NYT Reported 3,90,000 paid

subscriber
70% of paid subscriber registered for digital
access
However, Potential drop in Website traffic
Concern in Online adv. Revenue
Overall business sentiment was not positive

Conclusion & Recommendations

Positive Growth in subscriber base
In short Term pay wall was success
Uncertain about long term strategy
Recommendation
They should continue with pay wall until they have

enough online adv. revenue.

However do away slowly and steadily with pay wall.
Initially can offer longer subscription periods to
loyal customers
Discount on subscription to new customers