The Times Paywall Not Paying Off Just Yet
By Anna Johnson on July 19th, 2010Are the paywalls erected by newspapers such as the United Kingdom’s esteemed publications, The Times and the Sunday Times, paying off? Internet based Beehive City reckons the signs are mixed.
Based on capturing sign-up data for The Times / Sunday Times since they erected their paywalls on June 15, 2010, Beehive City asserts the following:
- 150,000 people registered free trial accounts on The Times and Sunday Times websites;
- 15,000 (10 percent) of those upgraded to paid accounts.
- 12,500 people have begun paying for The Times’ iPad application.
Apparently, a 10 percent conversion rate of paid signups is ‘disappointing’ while 12,500 for the iPad app is good.
While a lot of companies using a ‘freemium’ model might rejoice at having 10 percent of all their website users as paid customers (see LINK), it seems The Times has higher expectations. Presumably such expectations are based on: (a) using a premium (not freemium) model where customers must pay to access all content, (b) having a much more established, trustworthy brand, and (c) the results of comparable sites.
The Times’ regards its iPad signups as a good result since so few people still own an iPad. Overall, however, it may be too soon to say whether the strategy is paying off or not…
