Early assessments of the new paywall system at the Times and Sunday Times newspapers do not look promising, as the high-risk strategy appears to have driven traffic away from the sites in very high numbers.
Data from Experian Hitwise shows the two sites' market share has collapsed from 4.37 per cent in the week ending May 22 to 1.81 per cent on June 23 – and these numbers are before any readers have even had to start paying. Rupert Murdoch's News International, which owns the two sites, implemented a system of registration, prior to introducing the actual payments.
Industry observers are also discussing the meaning of the publication of a full-page "why you should pay for us" article in the Sunday Times on the weekend. Many are viewing it as a frantic justification of a system where all is not well.
The author of the article, Times reporter Richard Wood, said quality journalism, like that offered in the Times, was an expensive but worthy enterprise, stating that the paywall was "in the best interests of both readers and journalists".
He wrote, "It is not asking a lot: £2 for a week's subscription," and made much of the fact that the Times's great competitor, the Guardian, is not charging for online access to its content.
News International has so far declined to comment on the Experian Hitwise figures.
