A Tale Of Two Timeses: A New York Meter, A London Wall

PaidContent reporting:
They may share both a name and new online fees, but onlookers shouldn’t confuse the new access models of The New York Times and Britain’s The Times. Though each is historically the “paper of record” in their respective countries, each online strategy is quite different - but each may be just as instructive…
NYTimes.com (NYSE: NYT) weekday visitors may be down by five to 15 percent since it introduced some charges, according to Hitwise. But, across the Atlantic, that kind of result would be considered a huge victory.
For, whilst NYTimes.com introduced a meter by which more than 20 on-site articles per month and full mobile access costs between $15 and $35 per month, News Corp.‘s UK title last summer opted for a blunter instrument - no free content; an across-the-board fee of £8.67 per month (or £1 a day). One analyst calls it not so much a “paywall” as a “Berlin wall”; you’re either in or out.
Relative to this backdrop, NYTimes.com’ approach is the have-your-cake-and-eat-it strategy. Britain’s The Times has deliberately shed the vast majority of its visitors - many of whom, common to most news sites, had always been fleeting, coming in from search and other sources - and is now pitching to advertisers the “quality” of its much smaller audience. In contrast, NYTimes.com can retain a higher proportion of its page views for advertisers and gain new paying customers. Crucially, NYTimes.com can also retain influence, something many think The Times has lost online.
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-a-tale-of-two-timeses-a-new-york-meter-a-london-wall