Traditional newspapers have experienced significant disruption since the invention of the Internet, and they’ve had huge struggles trying to monetize online effectively. This is primarily because they all started out providing content free online, and digital ads are far less expensive than print ads. One way many news organizations, including the New York Times, have chosen to monetize online, is by introducing the subscription model. The subscription model is an effective design because it essentially does not allow users to access content without payment. For a small monthly fee, readers can access all NYT content online. It works because core of the New York Times is not its physical newspaper, but rather “its journalists, its brand, its culture, its reach, its values,” as one news blog put it. People are willing to pay for it. And once you have a subscription, you’re generally hooked—I can’t imagine not having access to all NYT stories.
