Salmon: FT.com Still Doesn't Get It

Salmon: FT.com Still Doesn't Get It

What on earth are the executives at FT.com thinking? Instead of boldly following the lead of the NYT and making the site free, they've arrived at a weird compromise: articles and data will be free to users up to a total of 30 views a month. They will then be asked to subscribe for access to more material. This is a silly decision, and I'm quite sure that eventually the whole site will go free. Let's count the reasons why this move makes very little sense.

1. It's a disincentive to read the site. The FT claims that the new model will "allow bloggers and news aggregators to link to material previously available only to subscribers" - but anybody seeing such a link will think twice before clicking on it, since doing so will cut into their precious allocation. At the margin, potential readers will probably make do with the summaries provided on the blogs and new-aggregation sites, and not visit FT.com at all.

2. It's a disincentive to link to the site. Let's say a blogger links to one in ten articles that he reads. Then if the blogger isn't an FT.com subscriber, he'll basically be limited to three links to FT.com per month. Why minimize the link-love in this way?

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