NYT to unveil online paid-model “within weeks”

The New York Times is expected to announce a decision on if and how it will charge for online content “within a matter of weeks”.

The newspaper has been considering introducing a paid-for model for months and was originally expected to announce plans in the summer.

Bill Keller, the paper’s executive editor, said: “It’s a much tougher, more complicated decision than it seems to all the armchair experts. There is no clear consensus on the right way to go.”

In July, president and CEO of the New York Times Company Janet Robinson hinted that the group was thinking about introducing a paid-for model with a metered approach and a “Times membership model with special offerings”.

Other options could also include micro-payments, charging for premium content and introducing a subscription fee, according to reports.

However, Robinson failed to give much away when asked recently.  “We are continuing to evaluate our options and we’ll announce a decision when we believe we have crafted the best possible business approach,” she said.

The company previously dropped its TimesSelect subscription for opinion content in a bid to generate more traffic to the site and increase revenues.  As a result, online made up 23% of the company’s ad revenues in Q3, while its online businesses accounted for 14% of revenues.

As such, analysts predict that the newspaper’s decision to charge for content is likely to be affected by what the site can get for display ads.

However, the New York Times’ publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr argued that charging for online content “would have little or no impact on our financial results in the short term, but rather position us differently for long-term growth”.