The Wall Street Journal has some leaked information on what the upcoming paywall for the New York Times might look like. The Times model is being closely watched since it would be by far the biggest general interest content site to set paid access. The Journal says it’s going to be a $20 monthly subscription if you want unlimited iPad and online access but only half that if you want web only. Web visitors would be able to view a certain (unspecified) number of free pages per month before the demand for money kicks in. The Journal’s source says only about 15% of people who use the Times site are the kind of heavy users who would end up exceeding that limit. What’s interesting here is that the Times right now gets 30 million unique monthly visitors, helping put eyeballs on $100 million in advertising revenues. Those numbers will go down once the paywall goes up. Can money from the paywall make up or surpass the difference?
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