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The Times Paywall Fail

Mark.J

Administrator
Staff member
ISPreview Team
I couldn't find the original topic for this so have started a new one.

Anyway, by now we all know that Rupert Murdoch carried out his plan to put The Times websites (News International) behind a paywall and remove its news listings from Google. Most people who understand how the internet works figured this would be a disaster.

Then in August Comscore claimed that visits to the related websites had fallen from 2.2 million July to 1.6 million in August. That's quite a drop but perhaps nothing unexpected. Now it looks like the situation is a lot worse, with advertisers and PR people walking away from The Times because its closed nature means that any stories they give the paper probably won't get a wide enough airing.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100903/16545310903.shtml

We haven't seen any official stats from The Times yet but it will be interesting to read when they do finally surface. At least their readers have plenty of rivals to choose from, which account for most of the internet.
 
serves them right.
 
According to Private EYE, the day the wall went up even the staff couldnt log in to submit their stories !!
 
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serves them right.

I couldn't agree with you more! :D

The "free" Times site was terrible to use, because it kept freezing & was very slow to load compared to all the other "newspaper" sites. I had given up on it long before it became subscription-only.

I mainly view Mail Online, Telegraph.co.uk, The Independent & Metro News; all are vastly superior to The Times online papers.
 
l think going into administration would be more amusing but thats just me lol.
 
l think going into administration would be more amusing but thats just me lol.

I'm glad "that's just you". Going into administration usually means that people who do not deserve to do so (staff & suppliers), lose their jobs & often their homes too. Meanwhile people in positions such as Rupert Murdoch's always seem to land back on their feet & running fast. Their company's debts are effectively written off & they buy back the profitable parts of their old company from the Receivers for next-to-nothing; trading re-commences as if nothing ever happened.

I experienced the above scenario in 1991 when a PVCu windows & doors manufacturer I had worked for for more than 8 years, went into receivership. I was owed £1,700 but I never received a penny of it. The company had all its debts written off (including what it owed me). A "new" company with an almost identical name, the same directors and in the same premises, bought all the assets back from the Receivers at a knock down price. Trading re-commenced within a couple of weeks. Most of the original company's customers were never aware that anything had ever happened. :rolleyes:
 
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Standard practice, sadly.
 
its a dog eat dog world out there and l gotta find my amusement somewhere.. after all l dunno how long l can continue to visit her considering at this moment in time lm facing being homeless again..
 
Here we go again. After News Corp's British newspaper arm (News International) admitted that its titles had lost up to 90% of their online readership and had 105,000 paying customers, they're now blaming the problem on iPad/phone newspaper apps that cannibalise their sales.

News Corp chief James Murdoch said:

"The problem with the apps is that they are much more directly cannibalistic of the print products than the website. People interact with it much more like they do with the traditional product."
He also blamed news agents for not merchandising their newspaper enough, like the iTunes store does. Doh. Fighting against the winds of change can be tough.
 
The way it was worded, they may have just 20,000 customers who have looked at the site about 5 times each.
(Or one really **** customer who spends all day in there!!)
 
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I see they have started advertising on TV to try and get people to pay to read the Times online website, £1 for a 30 day trial :laugh:
 
Out of your mind, or just a bit stupid?

The Times Online is just too expensive at £1 per day or £2 per week; that's £365.25 per year if you are totally out of you mind or £104.07 per year if you are just a bit stupid. Poor value, even compared with the overpriced TV Licence Fee @£145.50 per year.

£1 per month would be slightly more reasonable, or £10 per year; they might then secure a few hundred thousand loyal subscribers. There must be a massive churn rate at their current prices & those who leave will probably never return (serve them right!).
 
still we are talking about a money-hungry business here.. unlikely they are going to lower the price, that is unless they get desperate.
 
still we are talking about a money-hungry business here.. unlikely they are going to lower the price, that is unless they get desperate.

They ARE desperate; just look at the circulation figures over the last 20 years.
 
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when your talking The Sun or the Daily Sport... l think its more of a issue of being a pervert lol, most ppl l know will spend 30mins looking at page three for its interesting articles and pictures it has on that page lol...
 
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