Blog

The New York Times has decided to drop its TimeSelect subscription service, which allows users into certain parts of the website.

What’s the reason for this? Search engine optimisation.

The TimeSelect service has produced over $10 million in revenue for The New York Times since 2005, so why drop it?

Well, if they continue with a relatively small amount of subscribers, they can continue earning a similar amount of money per year. But if they open their pages up to the public, and more importantly, the search engines, then the volume of traffic will increase dramatically.

They can then use this extra traffic to generate extra ad revenues on the site. As Vivian Schiller, senior vice president of The New York Times points out “our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising”.

This is a smart move from The New York Times, perhaps we’ll start seeing other big subscriber sites follow suit in the near future if it works out for the better! 

About the author

Darren is an online marketing executive. He joined Coast Digital in 2006. He works with several big clients including Slendertone and Wiltshire Farm Foods. The majority of his work is on affiliate programs but he also has his own PPC and SEO clients, including Symantec and LapSafe.

Darren brings great enthusiasm to his work and really enjoys working on SEO projects. He finds nothing more rewarding than getting a website to the top spot in the search engine results.

He is a Google Advertising Professional and a DC-Storm Champion.

Darren graduated with a first class honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Essex. Coast Digital is his first job.