Times paywall drives off online readers
p2pnet view P2P:- “No need to stay tuned”, p2pnet said in our post that Ruposaur Murdochus Corporatus had decided to build a money wall around his The Times and Sunday Times newspapers.
It was a foregone conclusion people wouldn’t exactly be falling over themselves to fork out.
But apparently, it’s even worse than that.
“The Times has lost almost 90% of its online readership compared to February since making registration mandatory in June”, calculations by the Guardian show, it says, going on >>>
Unregistered users of thetimes.co.uk are now ‘bounced’ to a Times+ membership page where they have to register if they want to view Times content. Data from the web metrics company Experian Hitwise shows that only 25.6% of such users sign up and proceed to a Times web page; based on custom categories (created at the Guardian) that have been used to track the performance of major UK press titles online, visits to the Times site have fallen to 4.16% of UK quality press online traffic, compared with 15% before it made registration compulsory on 15 June.
These figures can then be used to model how this may impact on the number of users hitting the new Times site. Based on the last available ABCe data for Times Online readership (from February 2010), which showed that it had 1.2 million daily unique users, and Hitwise’s figures showing it had 15% of UK online newspaper traffic, that means a total of 332,800 daily users trying to visit the Times site.
If none of the people visiting the site have already registered, the one-on-four dropout rate means that traffic actually going from the registration site to the Times site is just 84,800, or 1.06% of total UK newspaper traffic – a 93% fall compared with May.
Stay tuned. 
… and identi.ca
p2pnet – Murdoch erects Times paywall, July 5, 2010
Guardian – Times loses almost 90% of online readership, July 20, 2010
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July 21st, 2010 at 9:27 am
What a surprise!
People who want to monetize everything just don’t get it; if you keep charging for anything and everything, with nothing free, people turn away!
The automotive industry gets it and that’s why they are always trying to offer low financing or cash-back or employee pricing. You need to give if you want to get!
Enjoy that reality check Rupert!
July 21st, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I’d sign up for them but i’d be afraid of the common and mysterious data crossover.
So it’s a no-go for me.
July 21st, 2010 at 2:04 pm
“Times paywall drives off online readers”
Whahahahahahahahahahahaha!
What a loser!
Now he should put a paywall on “fixed news” (I mean) Fox’s News too!
Whahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
July 21st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Rich fucks are all the same; if they dropped a penny and a bum bent over to pick it up they would punch him unconscious to get it back, then have him arrested for stealing.
July 21st, 2010 at 5:23 pm
“But I don’t understand! Why are people not paying us for news when they get it free everywhere else? It doesn’t make any sense!”
July 26th, 2010 at 7:54 am
The next step will be to get stop sites free content online by making it illegal to do so… Anti-competitive and all that.
July 26th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Why should people pay? I don’t see the point. If we pay, we get screwed for it. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you watched a cable or satellite channel (paid for) where there were long advertisements? What happens when the channel switches to a commercial? Does it blast the commercial at high volume? That is what happens on my paid TV. However, downloaded movies are gotten for no charge, and I do not have to watch put up with commercials, pop up or pop under advertising.If news were to be monetised and no longer available for free, what will happen to it? It too will be even more chock full of advertisements. NO, I will not pay for crap whether it is from a news site or from a cable channel operator. There is no need to pay when it can be gotten free, especially the way I have been treated as a customer.