That’s pricey. Ahead of The New York Times Company launching a paywall for its flagship title next year the company is testing the waters with other daily papers in the group and has begun charging readers of the Telegram & Gazette, in Worcester, Massachusetts, almost £10 a month for access to its website.

The New York Times itself has not publicly decided on the price it will charge when its metered paywall goes live early next year so what is happening in Worcester is very interesting.

Executives in Manhattan are going to be watching very careful the reaction of readers and their tolerance for paying for a newspaper that it was last year prepared to throw in as part of a buy one newspaper and get another free deal as it considered (abortively) selling the Boston Globe. The Globe sale came to end and so the Telegram & Gazette remained within The New York Times Company.

What is very significant here is that the Telegram & Gazette has gone in at such a high price point: of $14.95 (£9.50) for a month or a 24-hour day pass for $1. Is that an indication of where the thinking of the New York Times lies? A premium price for a premium product?

The editor and publisher of the T&G make no bones about why they are charging. News is expensive. In their letter (see below) to readers (326 comments so far) they say it is “expensive to provide the most complete coverage of local news in the many communities we cover across Central Massachusetts and Northeast Connecticut” and that the business of journalism is “labor intensive and the financial support we need to fulfill our mission to you cannot (and in all fairness, should not) be borne just by our print subscribers and advertisers”.

All this as yesterday it was reported that Times in London had lost 1.2 million readers since erecting paywall.

So compare what the New York Times is charging readers in Massachusetts to The Times in London. The prices are not dissimilar. In theory our Timers should be costing readers £8 a month or £2 a week, but its £1 a month trial offer is proving to have a good deal of longevity and is still open.

You have to ask yourself exactly how long this trial period is going to run for? I’ve asked just waiting for the answer.

Letter to Readers

A new day dawns for the Telegram & Gazette, your trusted source of news and information. Beginning tomorrow we will charge for access to our locally produced articles on telegram.com. Subscribers to the print edition of the T&G will continue to receive unlimited access to our website as part of their current print subscriptions.

Our new approach to telegram.com will mean that readers who are not print subscribers will be asked to register to read up to 10 local news articles in a month or to pay for unlimited access to the local news report. The variety of pay options includes a monthly charge of $14.95 or a 24-hour day pass for $1.

In April, we announced our plans to institute this new business model this summer. Our approach is grounded in the belief that the local news report produced by our trained professional staff each day has tremendous value on whatever platform it is delivered, be it print, online or mobile. We are not the first, and we surely will not be the last media company, to make this decision as newspapers make the transition to complete multimedia companies.

An abundance of quality material, much of it local, will continue to be available free online to all. This includes breaking news, obituaries, videos, classified advertising, TelegramTowns stories, and news outside the area obtained from wire services.

Why have we decided to implement the online charge for local news articles? While there are a variety of reasons, the primary one is obvious: It is expensive to provide the most complete coverage of local news in the many communities we cover across Central Massachusetts and Northeast Connecticut. Our business is labor intensive and the financial support we need to fulfill our mission to you cannot (and in all fairness, should not) be borne just by our print subscribers and advertisers.

We are proud of the work we do. We have great faith in our professionally trained journalists who set out each day to bring you the latest news and information touching your lives. Our reporters and photographers are in town halls, city halls and boardrooms. They are at the Statehouse in Boston and the courthouses around Worcester County. They are at Little League championships and NBA playoffs. They and the editors who work with them are experts, and they all work for you.

Our journalists record in words and pictures the next chapter of our region’s history. They have deep roots in our community, solid news judgment, credible local sources and the skill to put it all together for you in a convenient and compelling package. We know you appreciate the value of what they do, and we thank you for your continued support. We hope you will appreciate the common sense approach we have taken to ensuring that we can continue to provide you with the same thorough local news report that we have every day since 1866.

We encourage you to visit telegram.com starting tomorrow to see how easy it is to register for access. We also encourage you to read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) online today that explains how this new model of delivery will work. It is important to remember that to those of you who still like to hold the newspaper in your hands, unlimited access to telegram.com is included in your existing subscription. You will have the print edition plus full access to the online extras and enhancements on telegram.com.

Bruce Gaultney, Publisher
Leah M. Lamson, Editor