New York Times Paywall

Word is leaking out that the New York Times will start charging for access to parts of their website. While this isn't crazy (Wall Street Journal follows this model) it is a departure from their previous thinking.

The argument for remaining free was based on the belief that nytimes.com is growing into an English-language global newspaper of record, with a vast audience — 20 million unique readers — that, Nisenholtz and others believed, would prove lucrative as web advertising matured.

I guess I don't understand why newspapers can sell advertising for so much more on paper than they can on a website. I sure don't pay them much attention one way or another. Sometimes if I see a two page spread in the top section I'll wonder how much Company ABC thought fit to drop for it. But as a medium of persuasion, I'm not convinced that print advertising is such a good bet. Or why it ever was.

I suspect that advertisers are less willing to spend for online ads because they can measure exactly what they get out of them and can see plainly how much less it is than the cost of the advertisement. The print ad must be seen to carry some cachet which serves to burnish the brand even if it doesn't directly lead to an uptick in business.