The Cost of Online News

With the recent increase in online news reporting many news companies such as the Washington Post, New York Times, and other leading news companies are deciding when online reporting deserves a price tag and stretching the boundaries of journalism. Recently with the increase in online blogging and easy access of online news journalism companies have had to think outside the box to harness an entrepreneurial system for currently free media and news on the Internet.


According to an article by the New York Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. seems close to adding a subscription feature to the New York Times online media outlet that includes a monthly fee. Historically New York Times has been one of the leading news media sources that have been reliable and an ethical source for Americans since 1851. The original price of a Times news paper was a penny. Today's prices are slightly higher with a daily price of $2.00 for metro as well as national and $5.00 to $7.00 on Sundays. The decision to add a price tag to the online resource was debated for over a year. The online presence if the Times has been strong since 1996 allowing readers to access thousands of articles with only a few exceptions for articles that need registration information to access. However this registration information never included a credit card number or monthly fee only basic information to allow the New York Times to keep track of what kinds of people are reading their stories. The company looked to the Washington Post for ideas on how to gain back the value of the online news circuit. They have decided that there will be three types of pay strategies. Each with a a different level of access to articles with increasing amount of monthly fees attached.


The Washington Post also copyrighted their website in 1996 along with Times. Unlike Times however, the Post requires a $9.95 monthly subscription fee to access online articles. Other national renowned online news companies such as the Chicago Tribune and databases such as Google News have not yet made the change to a paid membership option yet either but with the continued trend of online news sources it will only be a matter of times before these sources will change the times.


However the Times will increase revenue drastically from its online sources Tom Friedman, an A-list columnist, says that he will lose many of his readers in India and China. Although this is a setback Time believes that this will be beneficial to their ever evolving industry and their company. With the continued trend of online sources applying these fee are going to force the Times to expand and explore other ways to entice their readers to continue to be loyal to their media.