The Times, renowned British newspaper and popular website, is gonna make you pay for their online content. Which is a shame, because it is one of the best newspaper websites around and one that I use a lot when searching for articles in my master’s course. However, you can access the content for free one month, as a try-out period. Other changes on site are the blocking of Google news and the impossibility of making anonymous comments. The editors claim that they want a ‘real relationship’ with their audience, whatever that may be.
Paying for content… They want us to do it, but we ain’t gonna. Or are we?
Last week I had an interview at Unieboek, the publisher of travel guidebooks such as Capitool and Marco Polo. They have launched the website On Track, on which you can download walking tracks with GPS coordinates. The first one is for free, after that a subscription of €14,99 provides you with unlimited amounts of tracks. When I asked the publisher about this website, she was very happy to say that they have sold around 14.000 subscriptions in just over a year.
And after the successful launch of Spotify this month, I wonder; are we really that reluctant to pay for online content? Or are the times really changing? What do you think?
