Digital Disruption

The newspaper industry is undergoing significant transformation as it attempts to adapt to the explosive growth of the Blogosphere and its associated democratization of content. We’ve posted several pieces that highlight some of these changes at the Washington Post, LA Times and the New York Times.

The latest chapter in the evolving story? The New York Times has recently fundamentally changed its online subscription model by opening its archives to blog publishers and blog readers alike.

Next to each story, you’ll now see a “Share” link that allows you to Digg the article, post it to your Facebook profile, comment on the article on NewsVine or generate a Permalink to use on your blog.

The rationale?

Under the old model, articles are initially free to read online but then they migrate to the archive where you need to pay for access ($4.95 per article). Once the article is in the archive, it is hidden to all non-subscribers and hence the content of the article is dead and buried and the advertising space on the article page is not generating any revenue.

Under the new model, a blogger can permanently “activate” the content, distribute it and allow the New York Times to generate ongoing ad revenue from the article.

Pretty smart!

David Feldt