The New York Times announced Thursday that it is launching “digital subscriptions,” an effort that will impact some users of NYTimes.com, and its applications for both smartphones and tablets.
According to a formal announcement from The New York Times, the program rolled out will require online and mobile readers to pay a monthly subscription fee. The service will, however, allow users to access twenty articles per month at no charge. After that, users will be required to purchase a digital subscription to access further newspaper content.
Digital Subscription services, the venerable publication says, will commence March 28, 2011. If, however, a user is already a home subscriber, access to the digital edition will be complementary. For non-delivery subscribers, one can pay $15 per month for access to the publication online or via mobile app.
Tablet users, unfortunately, will have to pay $20 per month, although there is a “combined” $35 subscription option for unlimited access on any and all devices. That plan, in total, would bring the annual price for a digital subscription to better than $400.
“Today marks a significant transition for The Times, an important day in our 159-year history of evolution and reinvention,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of The New York Times. “Our decision to begin charging for digital access will result in another source of revenue, strengthening our ability to continue to invest in the journalism and digital innovation on which our readers have come to depend. This move will enhance The Times’s position as a source of trustworthy news, information and high-quality opinion for many years to come.”
