We run the numbers so you don’t have. There are four new options:
|
Plan |
Description |
Rate (every four weeks) |
| Free | 20 free articles a month plus unlimited access to the home page, section fronts, blog fronts and classified. Plus free access via search engines, the Facebook and Twitter. | $0 |
| NYTIMES.COM + Smartphone app |
Unlimited access to NYTimes.com and the NYTimes smartphone app. | $15 |
| NYTIMES.COM + Tablet app |
Unlimited access to NYTimes.com and the NYTimes tablet app. | $20 |
| All Digital Access | Unlimited access to NYTimes.com and the NYTimes tablet and smartphone apps. | $35 |
Where this gets interesting is when you compare these plans to the physical paper subscription plans which all come with the equivalent of the All Digital Access plan.
(space padding due to table width below)
|
Annual Cost |
NYT.com Articles/ Month |
Smartphone App Access |
Tablet App Access |
NYT Editorial Page Guilt ** |
|
| Free | $0 | 20 * | None | None | Low |
| NYTIMES.COM + Smartphone app |
$ 195 | Unlimited | Unlimited | None | Low |
| NYTIMES.COM + Tablet app |
$ 260 | Unlimited | None | Unlimited | Low |
| Weekday Only Subscription | $ 384.80 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | High |
| Sunday Only Subscription | $ 390 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | High |
| All Digital Access | $ 455 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Low |
| Weekender Subscription | $ 540.80 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | High |
| Daily Subscription | $ 769.60 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | High |
Net, keep the Weekday or Sunday-Only mountain of ink-smudged paper if you are living la vida multi-device. I had really hoped to get rid of the newsprint altogether but I shouldn’t be paying more for near zero marginal cost product.
* How long before there is a GreaseMonkey script that adds a Twitter or Facebook referrer to every link on nytimes.com and everything is free again?
** The physical paper of course entails the wholesale pulping of forests, vast carbon emissions for home delivery, “paperboys” with inadequate health care insurance, overflowing land fills and customers with inky fingers. I look forward to the editorial page thundering in dismay at the shortsightedness of this lamentable capitalist organization.
Peter O’Kelly points out:
1.) Delivery prices vary by location – prices above are for Seattle
2.) You get 50% off the first 12 weeks for print edition subscriptions, making print that much more preferable.
Thought you’d like this…
”The New York Times paywall is like the French tax system: expensive, utterly complicated, disconnected from the reality and designed to be bypassed.” http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/03/21/nytimes-“fair”-prices/
Excellent. Comparisons to French economic efficiency, by the French, no less.
Strange thing – I ran into the 20 article limit a few days ago but now that seems to be reset. Unlikely I know, but is it possible they’ve scrapped the program??
No idea – the monthly window may start from when they write the cookie as opposed to first of the month. Or they’re already backing off. Or it doesn’t work as advertised.
I haven’t explored the paywall in detail because I still have them delivering several pounds of dead tree to my doorstep weekly because of the perverse incentives their pricing plan creates. They really have no credibility on the editorial side when they tell people what to do in order to save the environment given their own actions.
Bypass the NYTimes paywall
Please cancel my subscription to the Times on line.
Thank you.