A Study Of The New York Times Paywall Model Driven By Both Users And Technology

With the development of Internet technology and mobile terminals,the paperless news has become more and more popular,and the traditional media business model with advertisement distribution as the main income has been hit.Major media have transformed and developed online new media platforms.They hoped the business model can enable the media to save itself.As a result,in 1997 the Wall Street Journal took the lead in opening the online reading payment model,but until the New York Times established the paywall in 2011,as a comprehensive media,in the process of establishing a paywall with vertical subdivision properties,making profits through twists and turns,doubts,and difficulties,the paywall has really become popular in the United States.At the same time,the domestic media has been trying hard to develop news payment channels and news products that meet the tastes and consumption habits of the audience.They are looking for a way of survival between "building the wall" and "breaking the wall".So how should a successful paywall be established? What about the business model?This article takes the New York Times' paywall history as an entry point,comprehensively reviewing from 2011 to 2019,especially from the experiment of the hard paywall model to the full implementation of the soft paywall,from the paywall 1.0 to the paywall 2.0,and analyzes the establishment of the paywall with the 2011-2019 financial report data separately.It discussed the transition process from the trial to the official implementation of the New York Times,from the PC terminal to the mobile terminal,and the different product matrices and business models involved in the transition process;from the perspective of content marketing,combined with the focus of content marketing: positioning target users,contenting value,expanding marketing and attracting attention,it summarizes the user-centered paywall core elements.As for the New York times paywall to the understanding of the technical level,the final goal will be to promote the connection between the users.Technology is also a way to tap deeper users and improve conversion rates among paying customers.The last part analyzes the payment model of other Internet products and its verification in the New York Times' paywall model,and summarizes the connotation and extension of the paywall,and puts forward the experience and shortcomings.In May 2003,the New York Times website began charging for its popular email alert service,News Tracker.In September 2005,the Times Select website adopted a hard paywall model,but abandoned it in September 2007.After a survey of its users,the New York Times officially announced the creation of a "metered paywall" on March 17,2011,and implemented it on March 28.Then it followed the changes of users' devices to obtain news,and turned to mobile strategy to develop its news APP.The New York Times paywall is a user-centric and technology-driven model.From the perspective of users,the Newsletter is used to attract new users,and the required contents are pushed to the mailbox of users according to their needs so that the connection between users and the newspaper is strengthened.Secondly,an academic platform is set up to cultivate young users.The library of news materials is establishedto set up an exclusive database based on the role of "historical chronicler".According to the KANO model,the New York Times has developed different products for different levels of users' needs.It achieved users' expectations with high-quality news,and created products with Cooking and Crossword.But at its core,increasing content scarcity is the foundation of paywalls.Not only in the business map to the digital transformation,it exit from paper mill investment and acquisition website,but also the number of Pulitzer prizes has gradually remained stable.The author summarized the New York Times' Pulitzer prizes from 2000 to 2019,and found that the number of international reporting and explanatory reporting awards was the highest,and the number of news pictures awards also gradually increased.In addition,through the sampling analysis,the author analyzed the 339 articles,published from January 1,2020 to February 1,found that as America's Democrats first major newspapers,the New York Times will is good at combining ideas with politics.The Opinion plate not only has the deep thinking of the editorial board,but also share the life of people.The international report showed a higher quality of news.From a technical point of view,the New York Times follows the reading habits of users from the PC to the mobile.With the mobile-first strategy,it carries out technology mining and expands marketing channels.First released in 2008,i OS edition has been upgraded to version 9.16,enabling users to get news with higher quality on mobile devices more quickly,and improving the user experience.By using artificial intelligence technology to monitor the key stories discussed by users,and get them into newsrooms,it independently developed marketing tools to target potential subscribers.In addition,the New York Times continues to expand its business in different ways,including building a podcast platform,expanding into television,and investing in the film production.At the same time,The TV advertisement "The Truth Is Worth It" released in early 2019 also showed that The New York Times news product is worth paying for,so as to gain the value recognition with users.In line with the scarcity of content,The New York Times not only includes text and picture reports,but also takes the lead in developing VR news and provides interactive news with new technologies.NYT VR has become an important part of its innovative news.It also includes The Daily,an audio news product.In fact,Internet payment platforms have been developed in many industries.Online videos,online games and online books are establishing new business models.Internet resources are no longer free as the main feature.In order to realize the combination between comprehensive media and paywall,the New York Times has given up paywall to display social value in a timely and appropriate manner,and continuously developed distinctive paid products and paid combinations.It has carried out news writing and product design in an open and transparent way to win the trust of users.In a word,we still need to take high-quality content as the foundation of paywall,establish exclusive database,balance the responsibility and profit to gain users' reputation,and pay attention to the cultivation and mining of users.Loyal users are the focus of mining.In general,the paywall model is the content marketing based on the scarcity of quality content.In terms of defects,the New York Times has not completely eliminated the payment barrier for price-sensitive users,and the opening time is random so that the brand communication value is lacking.In addition,the un-subscription mechanism is still relatively traditional.