Showing posts with label Business News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business News. Show all posts

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The New York Times is ready to charge their online readers



According to sources familiar with the deliberations the New York Times is ready to charge a fee to read it's on online content. There will be a few free articles before users will be asked to sign up and pay a fee. This comes after a debate with the newspaper which has been ongoing for a year now. 


According to the nymag


The Times has considered three types of pay strategies. One option was a more traditional pay wall along the lines of The Wall Street Journal, in which some parts of the site are free and some subscription-only. For example, editors and business-side executives discussed a premium version of Andrew Ross Sorkin's DealBook section. Another option was the metered system. The third choice, an NPR-style membership model, was abandoned last fall, two sources explained. The thinking was that it would be too expensive and cumbersome to maintain because subscribers would have to receive privileges (think WNYC tote bags and travel mugs, access to Times events and seminars).
The Times has also decided against partnering with Journalism Online, the start-up run by Steve Brill and former Journal publisher L. Gordon Crovitz. It has rejected entreaties by News Corp. chief digital officer Jon Miller, who is leading Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to get rival publishers onboard to demand more favorable terms from Google and other web aggregators. This fall, Miller met with Times digital chief Martin Nisenholtz, but nothing came of the talks.









However, such a plan isn't likely to garner much support from readers. A Harris poll released earlier this month found that 77 percent said they wouldn't pay anything to read a newspaper's stories on the Web. Of those who indicated they were willing to be charged for access to content, 19 percent would pay between $1 and $10 a month.


With newspapers suffering in sales decline and more readers accessing their online versions. Publishing houses are wanting to capitalize on this and somehow generate additional revenue.


An original post by

Sociolatte



Friday, January 15, 2010

Verizon Wireless, AT&T lower unlimited voice and data plans

With data use becoming more important to mobile phone users. Carriers are also adjusting their pierces accordingly. Smartphones are slowly taking over the connections. With the largest of date users being called "Data Hogs". Carriers will therefore have to effect changes that reflect this growing need. With Mobile phones becoming more like mini Internet Devices Data is a now a huge thing. This of course has got carriers to think of new revenue models as people seek to access emails and Social Networks from their phones. 


Verizon Wireless, the largest cell phone carrier in the U.S., said early in the day that, starting Monday, it would start charging $70 a month for an unlimited monthly calling plan. The same plan previously cost $100.

This also brings down the monthly cost for users of the company's high-end smart phones like Motorola's Droid, which require a $30 per month unlimited data plan. An unlimited data and voice plan will now cost $100, rather than $130.

Rival AT&T Inc., the nation's second-largest wireless carrier, responded late Friday by announcing some of the same price cuts. Starting Monday, it, too will charge $70 for an unlimited calling plan that had also been $100, and offer a $100 plan with unlimited voice and data for smart phones like Apple Inc.'s popular iPhone (also down from $130).



An original post by

Sociolatte