Although the “press had a little fun with a recent remark” made by publisher Terry Jimenez, Newsday would like everyone one to know that everything is going fine with their paywall and this basically exactly how they planned it and it is fine.
Cablevision local media president Tad Smith explained in a memo:
Newsday‘s web strategy has two parts: 1) to provide Newsday‘s print subscribers with a rich web experience that goes far beyond what they can get in the newspaper alone, thereby motivating them to remain, return, or choose to subscribe to Newsday; and 2) to provide Cablevision’s high-speed Internet customers with reasons to remain with Cablevision, reasons to return to Cablevision, or reasons to choose Cablevision.
The way to measure success for newsday.com is not, therefore, to count how many people sign up to pay $260 per year for access to the website.
The memo refers to the site’s “approximately three dozen subscribers”; John Koblin’s more precise count is 35.
Elsewhere in paywall planning: Felix Salmon thinks The Times model will be revenue-neutral.
