Recycling The Newspaper
or Gray Lady 2.0
I quote from and link to the New York Times a fair amount in my postings. I am not a subscriber of the newspaper, but I spend at least an hour or so a day reading their website.
The Times have done an amazing job revamping their online product from the days of posting a few of their print articles, to the "TimesSelect" subscription experiment, to the current, completely free-with-registration, ad supported offering. But in dropping their pay-wall, they have gone way beyond just going back to "online is a free version of print". The NY Times online is now a much richer experience -- filled with blogs from interesting people, reader contributed conversations, videos and slide shows, and of course the huge archive (the last 25-ish or so years of which are free).
Instead of the website feeling like a minor echo of the printed newspaper, it's just the opposite. The printed newspaper -- when I actually see it -- feels like it's missing something. Both have their place I suppose.
In contrast, I do subscribe to the printed edition of the San Jose Mercury News, but I can't imagine that continuing much longer. The SJ Mercury content I find interesting is the local news and a couple of columns. The New York Times represents a brand I trust and can count on to provide well written, interesting articles. The SJ Mercury News to me stands for nothing but wire reports, one local article about San Jose (I live on the Peninsula -- their coverage of that area has dropped considerably), and not much else. I get all that from the free Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto Daily News and Topix.
To me, brand is very important in the news business. I don't live in New York, but with it's national and global focus, the Times is emerging as one of a handful of sources that I generally (though never completely) trust and regularly consume.
I quote from and link to the New York Times a fair amount in my postings. I am not a subscriber of the newspaper, but I spend at least an hour or so a day reading their website.
The Times have done an amazing job revamping their online product from the days of posting a few of their print articles, to the "TimesSelect" subscription experiment, to the current, completely free-with-registration, ad supported offering. But in dropping their pay-wall, they have gone way beyond just going back to "online is a free version of print". The NY Times online is now a much richer experience -- filled with blogs from interesting people, reader contributed conversations, videos and slide shows, and of course the huge archive (the last 25-ish or so years of which are free).
Instead of the website feeling like a minor echo of the printed newspaper, it's just the opposite. The printed newspaper -- when I actually see it -- feels like it's missing something. Both have their place I suppose.
In contrast, I do subscribe to the printed edition of the San Jose Mercury News, but I can't imagine that continuing much longer. The SJ Mercury content I find interesting is the local news and a couple of columns. The New York Times represents a brand I trust and can count on to provide well written, interesting articles. The SJ Mercury News to me stands for nothing but wire reports, one local article about San Jose (I live on the Peninsula -- their coverage of that area has dropped considerably), and not much else. I get all that from the free Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto Daily News and Topix.
To me, brand is very important in the news business. I don't live in New York, but with it's national and global focus, the Times is emerging as one of a handful of sources that I generally (though never completely) trust and regularly consume.
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