Washington Post watching online pay experiments

Dec 06, 2010
A Washington Post (C) vending machine is stocked with newspapers for sale. The Washington Post is monitoring efforts by The New York Times and other newspapers to charge readers online but has no plans to do the same for now, the Post Co. chairman said Monday.

The Washington Post is monitoring efforts by The New York Times and other newspapers to charge readers online but has no plans to do the same for now, the Post Co. chairman said Monday.

"On pay models, obviously what The New York Times is doing is of interest to us," Donald Graham told financial analysts at the UBS 38th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference here.

"We'll be watching it and we wish them well," Graham said, adding that his newspaper was also monitoring pay wall efforts by Rupert Murdoch's The Times.

Acknowledging that the Post would not be a pioneer in fee-based services, Graham said the company would be watching how others implement those approaches.

"There are experiments galore going on in pay models at newspapers all around the country," he added.

"We're quite willing to be followers on this front."

.'s The Times and The Sunday Times recently began charging readers for full access to their websites and The has announced plans to begin charging next year for full online access to NYTimes.com.

Graham also said the Post Co. is "investing a little bit in technologies for news delivery generally and we may have something new and interesting to announce before too many months go by."

Like other US newspapers, the Post has been grappling with declining print , eroding circulation and the migration of readers to free news on the Web.

Explore further: Bernanke forecasts gains from computer technology

add to favorites email to friend print save as pdf

Related Stories

Future of newspapers is digital: Murdoch

May 28, 2009

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday that the future of newspapers is digital, but it may be 10 to 15 years before readers go fully electronic.

Recommended for you

Bernanke forecasts gains from computer technology

8 hours ago

(AP)—Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says pessimists who are forecasting that the economy will not reap sizable benefits from the computer revolution are likely to be proven wrong.

Yahoo Japan suspects 22 million IDs stolen

11 hours ago

Yahoo Japan Corp. has said it suspects up to 22 million user IDs may have been stolen during an unauthorised attempt to access the administrative system of its Yahoo! Japan portal.

US seizes Bitcoin operator accounts

19 hours ago

US authorities seized the accounts of a Bitcoin digital currency exchange operator, claiming it was functioning as an "unlicensed money service business," court documents showed Friday.

Italian police raid hackers who took on Vatican

May 17, 2013

Italian police on Friday arrested four alleged hackers believed to belong to the activist group Anonymous for attacking websites, including those of the Vatican and the parliament in Rome.

User comments : 1

Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank

Display comments: newest first

geokstr
1 / 5 (1) Dec 06, 2010
The Washington Post and the NY Times, as well as the major free TV "news"casts, and other old line "news" media won't be gaining new revenue sources any time soon. They've been hemorrhaging readers/viewers for a decade now because this center-right nation has finally woken up and now understands that they are nothing more than shills for the Democratic left. Expect the decline to continue, online fees or no.

And Nov 2 put an axe in any plans to have the federal government bail them out.

Bye, bye, fishwrap.

More news stories

Morocco to harness the wind in energy hunt

Morocco is ploughing ahead with a programme to boost wind energy production, particularly in the southern Tarfaya region, where Africa's largest wind farm is set to open in 2014.

US seizes Bitcoin operator accounts

US authorities seized the accounts of a Bitcoin digital currency exchange operator, claiming it was functioning as an "unlicensed money service business," court documents showed Friday.

Galaxy's Ring of Fire

Johnny Cash may have preferred this galaxy's burning ring of fire to the one he sang about falling into in his popular song. The "starburst ring" seen at center in red and yellow hues is not the product of ...

US psychiatry gets makeover in new manual

The latest makeover to a massive psychiatric tome honored by some, reviled by others and even called the "Bible" of mental disorders is being released Saturday with a host of new changes.