I came across this article and was absolutely amazed at the number of subscribers. 35!!? I would guess that a good portion of the subscribers are actually employees trying to bump up their numbers. They will not sell much digital content with such horrible numbers! I question the ability of a company to profit if they do not have much in-house generated content... things that one can only get at their publication. Why would someone pay to subscribe if they are getting the same AP/Reuters generated content they can get somewhere else free?
I think companies have to get creative in their content and create new and interesting content the public can only get there, such as more investigative journalism.
35 subscribers @ $260 per year = $9,100 per year. Does that cover the utility bill for the servers?
Doomsday for Newsday?
In late October, Newsday, the Long Island daily that the Dolans bought for $650 million, put its web site, newsday.com, behind a pay wall. The paper was one of the first non-business newspapers to take the plunge by putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been followed with interest. Could its fate be a sign of what others, including The New York Times, might expect?
So, three months later, how many people have signed up to pay $5 a week, or $260 a year, to get unfettered access to newsday.com?
The answer: 35 people. As in fewer than three dozen. As in a decent-sized elementary-school class.
That astoundingly low figure was revealed in a newsroom-wide meeting last week by publisher Terry Jimenez when a reporter asked how many people had signed up for the site. Mr. Jimenez didn't know the number off the top of his head, so he asked a deputy sitting near him. He replied 35.
Michael Amon, a social services reporter, asked for clarification.
"I heard you say 35 people," he said, from Newsday's auditorium in Melville. "Is that number correct?"
Continue reading article here...
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