Boston Globe on brink of closure

[kennedy]

St. Louis is one of those "middling U.S. cities" and there are plenty of examples. How true that sentiment about the industry to arts district is! We've got the "Loop," an old streetcar strip, similar to Mass Ave. "Soulard" is an old Cajun neighborhood, very urban, very old, and in a slightly disheartening state of disrepair. The "Central West End" is perhaps the most commercialized. They market it as the "CWE" or just the "West End," as a trendy loft and boutique neighborhood. Some urban sectors, some not so much.

Point is, neighborhoods ARE brands. Some are good and convey the identity of the environment through their name well (SoHo,) while some suck and fail to 'match' their identity, as they just mimic the successful neighborhoods and ignore their own environment (SoWa).

[statler]

Boston.com - September 30, 2010

Globe to offer two websites: one free, one pay
September 30, 2010

Robert Gavin, Globe Staff

The Boston Globe next year will split its digital news brands into two distinct websites, keeping Boston.com free while establishing a subscription-only pay site, BostonGlobe.com, which will feature all the content produced by the newspaper's journalists, publisher Christopher M. Mayer said today.

The change, scheduled to take place during the second half of 2011, is aimed at building an audience of paid subscribers online, a strategy that newspapers across the country increasingly are moving towards. With this approach, the company also aims to maintain high traffic to Boston.com, one of the nation?s largest regional news sites and a site that generates revenue from advertising.

Boston.com will continue its focus on being a "one-stop source for all things Boston" that offers breaking news, sports, and weather, from a variety of sources, as well as classified advertising, social networking, and information about travel, restaurants and entertainment, Globe officials said. Boston.com's audience will have limited access to journalism that appears in the newspaper, but will have wide-ranging access to content the Globe?s newsroom produces throughout the day for the website.

BostonGlobe.com, designed to closely approximate the experience of reading the paper's print version, will contain all the stories and other content from the day's paper as well as exclusive reports, in-depth news, analysis, commentary, photos and graphics, plus video and interactive features.

"Our research shows that Boston.com currently attracts several different types of users. Some are readers whose main interest is breaking news and things to do, while others want access to the entirety of The Boston Globe,? Mayer said. ?These two distinct sites will allow us to serve both types of readers with maximum effectiveness, while continuing to provide advertisers the large engaged audience they have come to expect from Boston.com.?

Subscribers to the Globe newspaper will have access to BostonGlobe.com as part of their subscription at no additional charge. The cost of a digital-only subscription has yet to be determined.

The paper is also developing a range of Globe-branded digital products for smartphones, tablets and other devices.

"We want to deliver our content when people want it, where people want it and how people want it," Mayer said. "Two brands create exciting opportunities for us."

Newspapers are launching paid websites as they seek new sources of revenue in the face of dwindling print circulation and advertising. While digital advertising is growing rapidly, it does not yet generate enough money to support the costs of extensive news gathering operations. As a result, publishers across the United States have dramatically cut the size of newsrooms in recent years.

The Globe is the latest newspaper to announce or launch a pay system, although its "two brands" model appears to be the first of its kind. The Wall Street Journal, which has long charged for its online version, allows readers free access to a limited number of articles, but requires a subscription for most content. Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, is experimenting with online pay systems at its papers in Tallahassee, Fla., Greenville, S.C., and St. George, Utah.

In Massachusetts, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, which is also owned by the Globe's parent, The New York Times Co., last month introduced a so-called metered model, in which print subscribers get free, unlimited access to the website, but non-subscribers are limited to 10 staff-produced articles a month. After that, they must pay a fee of $1 for a day's access, or $14.95 a month.

Earlier this year, the New Bedford Standard Times implemented a similar model for its website. Meanwhile, the New York Times plans to adopt a metered model next year, although it has yet to disclose details.

The Globe considered those and other pay models before settling on the two-brands approach, Mayer said. He said the paper was in a unique position since Boston.com, started 15 years ago, had established a separate brand identity, in addition to its affiliation with the Globe. Today Boston.com attracts about 5 million unique visitors a month and is ranked by Nielsen NetRatings as the nation's eighth largest newspaper website.

Market research, meanwhile, showed Boston.com attracts two distinct audiences: casual and occasional visitors interested in quickly accessing listings, classifieds, and specific articles; along with committed readers who immerse themselves in stories produced by Globe journalists for the newspaper. That second group, Mayer believes, will be willing to pay for more extensive stories and other information.

Some Globe content, such as breaking news, will remain on Boston.com, but the precise mix has yet to be decided, Mayer said. Boston.com will also try to expand the ease and range of goods and services people can buy directly through the site. BostonGlobe.com, with the goal of creating a "lean-back experience" for readers, will have a simpler, newspaper-like design with less intrusive ads, he said.

At the same time, the two sites will allow advertisers to target different audiences, Mayer said. 'If you want to expand market share," he said, "you expand the product base."

The Globe, like many newspapers, has struggled in recent years as more readers and advertisers have moved from print to online. Last year, with the national recession accelerating the decline in ad revenues, and the Globe losing millions of dollars, the Times Co. threatened to close the paper unless unions agreed to deep concessions, which they eventually accepted. Compensation for Globe managers was also reduced.

Since then, the financial situation has stabilized. Ultimately, said Mayer, the goal of the Globe's pay system is to support a news operation that has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes. "Our objective is to continue to provide quality journalism," he said.

[BarbaricManchurian]

lol that is just beyond retarded

[czsz]

And the Globe just left whatever part of the national conversation it was still a part of.

[KentXie]

I think this is a great idea. Before the internet became widely use, you had to pay to get the newspaper or wait until the 10 o clock news. They are just implementing the same system into the internet while keeping viewers coming at the free site.

[BarbaricManchurian]

^^or they could just go to a free site owned by the SAME COMPANY with higher quality news, nytimes.com

[Suffolk 83]

Isn't The Times making ppl pay for stuff too?

[BarbaricManchurian]

nope

[kmp1284]

Not quite, The Times is going to be charging for unlimited access starting in January. Non-paying readers will be allowed a set number of free articles per month before they have to pay.

[Suffolk 83]

knew it

[BarbaricManchurian]

no, that's the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, which is owned by the Times though.

[BarbaricManchurian]

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-n...-on-its-meter/

[kmp1284]

The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site

Taking a step that has tempted and terrified much of the newspaper industry, The New York Times announced on Wednesday that it would charge some frequent readers for access to its Web site ? news that drew ample reaction from media analysts and consumers, ranging from enthusiastic to withering.

Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/bu...imes.html?_r=1

[czsz]

The Times model is better, because you won't have any specific content locked behind a wall. The meter allows at least limited access for people who aren't subscribers, meaning that if you click on a link to a story behind a wall, you should be able to read it if you aren't over your limit. That's called staying relevant and actually considering the potentialities of being on the internet, rather than wishing the whole thing had just been a bad dream and old revenue models can be easily reimposed.

The Globe is just going to lock all that content away unless you are already a subscriber, meaning no one but regular readers will be accessing it.

I read the Globe online from time to time now, but I'm likely to just ignore it if I have to pay for it. And while I'm likely to pay for the NYT, it should be noted that there will still be plenty of free news out there for these sites to compete with. The increasingly internationalized Guardian, for example, plans to remain free and cast its lot with increased pageviews from pay site refugees driving up ad revenue.

[kmp1284]

Globe circulation down 15.6% over last six months

http://www.boston.com/business/ticke...ation_dec.html

[BarbaricManchurian]

lol, who actually reads news on a paper newspaper anymore?

[BostonUrbEx]

Originally Posted by BarbaricManchurian

lol, who actually reads news on a paper newspaper anymore?

People who have the Metro put in their hands for free.

The only time I find someone reading the Globe is because they dug through a Metro recycling bin looking for one.

[statler]

I'm generally a defender of the Globe, not really a big fan of Wasserman's work or BoA and really want the MFA's new wing to be wildly successful, but this is just wrong.