Beginning in April, The New York Times will offer non-subscribers just ten free articles a month, down from the original 20, the Times Media Group announced today. Shared and searched links still won’t count toward the ten-article limit.
The company was apparently encouraged by the 454,000 nytimes.com users who chose to pay for a digital subscription in the year since the pay wall was put up.
“Last year was a transformative one for The Times as we began to charge for digital access to our content,” publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. said in the announcement. “Today, close to a half million people are now paying for digital content from The Times and the IHT. We knew that readers placed a high value on our journalism, and we anticipated they would respond positively to our digital subscription packages. Our commitment to all of our subscribers, both print and digital, is that we will continue to invest in and evolve our journalism and our products, and we will remain a source of trustworthy news, information and high-quality opinion for many years to come.”
To say thanks to all those who said, “Information may want to be free but you can’t always get what you want,” the company is offering subscribers a free 12-week digital gift subscription to pass along to a friend or loved one on the other side of the wall.
