How Many People Think a Digital NYT Subscription Is Worth $455/Year?

Frédéric Filloux (Jean-Louis Gassée’s Monday Note colleague):

The New York Times paywall is like the French tax system: expensive, utterly complicated, disconnected from the reality and designed to be bypassed. […]

The New York Times’ pricing structure, the fact that it is also designed to protect the paper’s physical circulation, the paywall’s porosity all complicate projections. One thing is sure: $35 a month ($420/year) to view the online paper on three devices is ridiculous, not matter how elitist the target group is fantasized to be. You simply don’t charge such an amount in a (US) market where services like Hulu or Netflix cost $7.99 per month.

Worse: because they charge by four-week increments rather than “months”, it actually works out to $455/year.

★ Monday, 21 March 2011