by Felix Richter, Statista.com
When The New York Times announced its digital subscription model in March 2011, it was considered a bold move by many industry experts.
The question was: would people really be willing to spend money on digital content that they were used to getting for free?
As it turned out, the answer is yes. Four and a half years after the introduction of its metered paywall, The Times recently announced that its digital subscribers had passed the 1-million mark by the end of July. “We believe that no other news organization has achieved digital subscriber numbers like ours or comparable digital subscription revenue”, the company’s CEO Mark Thompson proudly announced.
To the newspaper industry as a whole, The Times’ decision to no longer give away all of its online content for free turned out to be a blessing. Not only did it promote the idea of paying for digital news content, but, given the paywall’s early success, it also encouraged other publishers to follow suit and think about ways to monetize journalism in the digital age.
According to Statista’s Digital Market Outlook, U.S. publishers are predicted to generate $899 million with digital replica editions alone this year, at least partly offsetting the ongoing declines in print subscription revenues.
This chart shows the number of paid digital-only subscribers of The New York Times.
You will find more statistics at Statista
>>>>> Scroll down to view and make comments
