Report: Audience Falls 66pct After Times Paywall Introduction

[engine]

It's a closely watched figure, no doubt, and it's still early days, however, the first numbers are out.

Report: Audience Falls 66pct After Times Paywall Introduction [guardian.co.uk]

The Times newspaper's website has lost two‑thirds of its audience following the implementation of a paywall, according to data published yesterday – a dramatic decline, but not as steep as many had forecast.

Readership figures for the site will be keenly scrutinised by the rest of the media industry, and particularly by rival newspapers, which are still struggling to work out a viable business model as readers migrate to online news and circulations decline.

Earlier
Times begins charges for online readers [webmasterworld.com]

[Demaestro]

Ignoring the fact that it fell, that isn't a bad base to start a pay service on.

Many of us would love to have that many subscribers willing to pay. The true test will be can they retain and build that base or will it continue to slip?

[StoutFiles]

Is it saying the remaining 1/3 of people are now paying for content? Sounds to me more like a 66% drop with new visitors still coming through search engines and finding out that the site has a paywall. The drop in visitors will likely fall to the projected 90%.

[karter]

Here in London , the 2 free evening papers finally gave up trying to make money on a free paper

Methinks as people get more familiar with the internet and how all the free stuff is collated, they may well slowly gravitate towards services like this, slowly