The Times paywall: early analysis from GfK

The Times‘ impending paywall has not only caused a stir in the industry, but has also made a difference to readers already, despite the new site still being in a free preview stage before a full pay model roll out later this month.

Since News International launched its new-look thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk sites, there have been notable changes in demographics, with more female visits and less male visits than before (compared to visits to Times Online, which is no longer in operation).

More ‘older’ people are also signing in to the new Times site, as more and more younger readers drop off.  However, there has been no significant change in dwell time so far, and the peak time of day for visits to the Times and Sunday Times‘ sites remain between 9am and 12 noon.

Since the launch, Times readers have increased their visits to other news sites (up 27%), mainly turning to the Telegraph and Mail‘s web offering, although occasionally viewing The Sun as a substitute.

GfK’s research director Gary Roddy, who presented the findings at today’s MEP morning event, said it’s still “early days” but he hopes to eventually monitor how the paywall will change reading habits and what it will mean for ad campaigns.

Despite predicting a substantial loss of readers, Roddy wonders if “paywall visitors will become more valuable to advertisers?”

Yesterday,  Harris Interactive unveiled a new poll for paidContent:UK, which found that 76% of previous Times Online readers are “not at all likely” to pay for access to the new Times and Sunday Times websites.

The poll also showed that 13% of Times Online users rated themselves as “somewhat likely” to sign up, while 4% were “fairly likely” and 2% “very likely”.

In terms of likelihood of paying, just 4% confirmed that they were “extremely likely” to pay for the online content.  Out of the group “fairly likely” to pay, 6% were men and 2% were female.

Detailed GfK research on the Times’ paywall to follow …