Murdoch: subscriber levels for The Times paywall are “strong”
Rupert Murdoch today gave the first hint at how well The Times is doing behind its paywall. Speaking today Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman, said that subscriber levels for The Times following its move to erect a pay wall were “strong”.
Of course, you say Murdoch is bound to say that, bound to be bullish, but it still marks the first public utterance News Corp has made regarding its paywall strategy now in place at The Times and The Sunday Times.
His comments come against a background of rumours that say very few people are using The Times website since its paywall was erected.
Last month sources quoted by US media columnist Michael Wolff said that no one was subscribing to The Times paywall. Wolff wrote: “My sources say that not only is nobody subscribing to the website, but subscribers to the paper itself—who have free access to the site—are not going beyond the registration page. It’s an empty world.”
Murdoch, who was appearing by video at a new media breakfast and panel debate hosted by Media in Sydney, however, gave a brighter picture to those attending the meeting and argued his paywall strategy would be a success.
“Subscriber levels are strong. We are witnessing the start of a new business model for the internet. The argument that information wants to be free is only said by those who want it for free,” he said, according to a report in the Murdoch-owned Australian.
Murdoch’s confidence no doubt stems from the fact that he owns the Wall Street Journal that gives him 1.1 million paying subscribers.
Murdoch also spoke about the rise of apps and tablet computers. He said that the success of the Apple iPad, and the success that News Corp titles had achieved there, will see the media giant create content for all of these new types of devices.
His comments added to the speculation last week that News Corp would launch a new unit to create content for apps and tablet computers.
“We can deliver our content to our readers when, where and how they want it. It’s cheap, convenient and constantly up-to-date,” Murdoch said.
He said that Apple could sell 40 million iPads by 2012 far outstripping original expectations.
“And the iPad is just one of many tablet or slate computers in the pipeline. News Corp fully intends to be across all those platforms too,” he said.
All Comments
One indication as to how the site is doing is to see how many people are commenting. When I looked a couple of weeks back the Mandelson serialisation was getting a few comments as was Matthew Parris’s column. But the rest was tumbleweed.
I suspect the commenting levels are still very small now.
Incidentally one of the most annoying things about The Times iPad app is that you don’t get to see the comments. It is a hermetically sealed handed down reading experience which seems so out of date now.
For the sake of the future of journalism I hope The Times experiment works. I fear it is doomed to failure though
I never subscribed to The Times behind the paywall, but I never read The Times online anyway, the BBC website was always too good too early.
However, I have The Times on my iPad – it not perfect, but getting better and whilst I still prefer the iPad navigation of the FT, the answer is yes, I will renew my monthly subscription for 10 GBP.
In fact, I have massively increased my readership of The Times and I think I get value for money.
Strange – but I get the feeling that Murdoch always beleived that the internet was lost and that the new battle for content revenue was going to be on the new devises. If so, smart move.
Br
Neil
@Ashley, I’ve noticed the same tubmleweed blowing through the site with sparse amounts of comments. It looks like too few and seems dumb that the comment system is not integrated with the iPad.
@Neil – Your comment to me points to the future and chimes with what has been coming out of News Corp about the possibilities that the iPad and other app based devices offered as people are willing to pay.
It looks like subscribing on the web is a red herring. The future of paid content does not lie there, but on walled services.
Great post. thank you very much for sharing these helpful informations
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