Attention New York Times: Duh

I worked at About.com for ten years, and it went through a lot of changes, but none, I think, as pervasive as when the NYT bought the company. It didn't seem like it at first, but slowly the company changed, finally to the point that it and I were no longer a match. I miss About, but the About.com I miss no longer exists...which is why I have my own leetle corner of the Web now, at Scifix-ile.com.

Anyways, a recent article lends further insight about The Times, particularly how the newspaper doesn't really seem to "get" how the Internet works.

From - here

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight tonight.

The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times and to some students and educators.

The Times said the project had met expectations, drawing 227,000 paying subscribers — out of 787,000 over all — and generating about $10 million a year in revenue.

“But our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising,” said Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the site.

What changed, The Times said, was that many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com. These indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.

“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,” Ms. Schiller said.

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And so I say again unto thee, NYT: You didn't know people don't walk through the "front door" of a Website by first clicking on the front page? Duh.