Live data from Hacker News

New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

nytimes.com

11–20 of 360 posts

Re: New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

#11
post #4

Why would anyone subscribe to NYT when the content is readily available online behind a trivially bypassed paywall?

Because they want to suppport the creation of high quality journalism?

Or because getting around the paywall is not trivial for everyone.

Or because of the other benefits that subscribers get that others do not.

Or because, for some, using a credit card is easier than some technical option.

Re: New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

#12
post #4

Why would anyone subscribe to NYT when the content is readily available online behind a trivially bypassed paywall?

Convenience and consistent access to a high quality experience. It's been shown time and again to work.

At a certain age it's reasonable to consider one's time to have a non-zero value.

It's what leads people to pay $10 a month to stream music, and even access movies, despite means which infringe on copyright being generally "free," easy, and also trivially accessed.

Re: New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

#13

It's surprising to see how small they are. Only 3.8 million subscribers, and you have to imagine that some percentage of that barely reads their content. I wonder if there's public numbers estimating how many people in total read the New York Times, and how it compares to emerging forms of media and entertainment like YouTube. One criticism of New York Times that I've read online is that they won't allow you to cance…

The main page only gives the phone number, but in the policy they also provide an email address you can communicate with to cancel [1]. Still, that is pretty frustrating when it should just be a few clicks. I recently had to turn off cable internet, which took an hour long conversation as the only method available, whereas turning off the power to the apartment took about 30 seconds after logging into their platform.

[1] https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015852367-Digi...

Re: New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

#14

It's surprising to see how small they are. Only 3.8 million subscribers, and you have to imagine that some percentage of that barely reads their content. I wonder if there's public numbers estimating how many people in total read the New York Times, and how it compares to emerging forms of media and entertainment like YouTube. One criticism of New York Times that I've read online is that they won't allow you to cance…

They apparently have no fewer than 130 million monthly readers, though, according to a press release from last year:

https://www.nytco.com/year-of-audience/

I̶ ̶g̶u̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶y̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶s̶p̶a̶p̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶d̶i̶v̶i̶d̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶.̶ [edit: that number isn't for physical newspapers, see replies]

Re: New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

#16
post #4

Why would anyone subscribe to NYT when the content is readily available online behind a trivially bypassed paywall?

I pay to support their journalism.

The amount that I consume is probably less than what requires a subscription, but I started paying because I can afford it, and I feel like it’s important for them to have resources to do what they do.

Re: New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

#18
post #5
post #4

Why would anyone subscribe to NYT when the content is readily available online behind a trivially bypassed paywall?

Old people that use the internet.

I'm 27 and I pay for a digital subscription. Relative to the average age of the world, I'd say I'm "young".

Re: New York Times Co. Reports $24M Profit, Thanks to Digital Subscribers

#19

It's surprising to see how small they are. Only 3.8 million subscribers, and you have to imagine that some percentage of that barely reads their content. I wonder if there's public numbers estimating how many people in total read the New York Times, and how it compares to emerging forms of media and entertainment like YouTube. One criticism of New York Times that I've read online is that they won't allow you to cance…

> One criticism of New York Times that I've read online is that they won't allow you to cancel your digital subscription through their website. They force you to call them. I'm not sure if that has changed recently, but that's a pretty questionable dark pattern.

This is illegal in Europe. By law, it has to be at least as easy to cancel subscriptions, as it is to buy them.

I love Europe. :)

Post reply on HN