What paid content might look like

Since Rupert Murdoch recently threw his support behind the paid content model a few months back suddenly a few news organisations seem prepared to give the previously failed model another chance.

I came across this interesting article via Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab – which gives a tantalising look at what the big media groups hope could save the staggering newspaper business overseas.

According to the survey allegedly filled out by this tipster – and duly shoveled online in its entirety – The New York Times is floating a couple of classic VIP membership models to access premium content – NYT Silver & NYT Gold. I’ll give you a bullet point sneak-peek – but you can see these models in detail here.

NYT Silver – $50 a year

- Backstory & Firstlook: Video of reporters discussing their stories, while Firstlook promises the chance to read content before it hits the news-stand or even the website

- Timeswire: Just that – a breaking news wire of everything that hits the website as its published – a NY Times ’stream of conciousness’ if you will.

- Timesmachine: Cute title this. The entire NY Times archive available online from front page to back – right back to 1851.

- Goodie bag: Lovingly referred to as ’swag’ in the US – think a free NY Times mug, baseball cap, style guide etc.

- Discounts from the NY Times store

- Crossword puzzle membership & first chance to get tickets to NY Times talks & other events.

NYT Gold – $150 a year

Take all of the goodies from the silver membership plus….

- TimesEvents – exclusive access to NY Times events and access to NY Times leading journalists (think having dinner with a film critic during the Tribeca film festival)

- TimesInsider – A tour of the NY Times including the newsroom.

Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty told Gawker the plans are far from final:

“It’s very early in the process. We are still in the data collection phase.”

Regardless – it’s a fascinating plan – mainly because the key content of the site – the news – appears to remain free to all comers, which would maintain the huge user base and millions of Page Views the site serves up every day.

Will it save the newspaper business? I doubt it.

Sure, these packages would attract a hard-core base of passionate NY Times supporters, but I’d suspect that they still buy the paper at least once or twice a week. Importantly it does nothing to attract the younger demographic of people, cutely coined ‘net natives’ who are developing enormous media consumption habits without ever opening a newspaper.

Are there any Australian newspapers that you’d be so attached to that you’d even want to tour their newsroom or be invited to their events early? I can’t think of any.

Newspaper businesses should be chasing the niche audience segments of their audiences … think a ‘Fairfax Foodie’ membership offering a first look at the Good Food Guide in Sydney/Melbourne and tickets to the awards dinner, a first look at The Sydney Food & Wine Festival and the chance to take part in ‘meet the chef’ sessions. Off the back of the success of Masterchef it’s not too hard to imagine is it?

I appreciate the issues faced by the newspaper business – News Limited CEO John Hartigan made a salient point when he said a few weeks ago that “for every reader we lose from the paper we need to pick up 10 online”. But it seems to me this is a wider issue with the advertising model that should be worked through by the market (do you like the way I fixed that huge issue with a wave of my hand?!).

Seriously though – as digital content inexorably becomes the predominant medium for news & entertainment, we’re likely to see better ad models measured by engagement, not just the numbers of pages served up.

But until then – we’re just as likely to see a few more of these ‘VIP’ news models rolled out – will be fascinating to see if any get a foothold in the market.

What do you think – could any of these models work?