Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Requiring a login for the free articles would cut down traffic more than they want. Most people, if they follow a link and it says "create an account & login to read the rest," won't bother. NYTimes plans on letting people read 20 articles/month for free--or as many as they care to, if they come from Twitter referrals.
Free login limits would be easy to get around by having multiple logins.
NYT is trying to figure out how to maintain their current popularity/activity level and charge for access. It's a nice thought, and I'm sympathetic to the need to figure out how to make more money than ad clicks are providing, but I don't think it's going to work--either the paywall will be too easy to get around, and they won't make money, or it'll be strict, and people will stop using their articles as reference points on blogs, and they'll lose traffic.
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I think they've got to be like everyone else on the Web, and choose between upfront money or traffic. Their current idea will get them traffic, but very little money.
I understand what you mean about the logins being painful for users, but I think you might be overestimating it. Users don't really have to log in each and every time to sites anymore. They can use their browsers' autologin function to do that. There are a certain number of users who won't want to save their logins, but, because people are lazy, I don't think that will be the majority.