New York Times confirms pay wall plans

As expected, The New York Times is to put its content behind a pay wall, although the core details are still yet to be announced. Readers of the NYT have around a year to decide whether they’ll join the scheme, paying for the privilege, or find an alternative source for the daily news.

A few days ago, it emerged that The New York Times was close to announcing its plan for the future of its Web business. And so it has come to pass, with the newspaper today issuing a press release confirming most of what has already been reported.

From the beginning of 2011, visitors to the NYT Web site will be able to read a certain number of articles for free each month. After that, they’ll have to pay for the privilege. 2010 will be spent ironing out the details and setting up the online infrastructure required to make this kind of model work.

It would appear this plan is very much an attempt by the NYT to have its cake and eat it. It will still collect advertising revenue from the occasional visitors not exceeding their free limit, while collecting payment from those loyal enough to hand over a subscription fee. There is, however, a risk that neither group will be happy.

• 

• The New York Times to start charging for online content, again – this time, metered
• The New York Times’ new paywall
• Why the New York Times Is Free
• The New York Times’ Congress API opens, first step toward government transparency in US
• New York Times bans “Tweet”