[Adam]

1. Is the paywall working?

The paywall is at least plugging a hole in the dyke. There is now a line item of paywall revenue. It seems to strike a balance by charging those that rely on the print or digital version of the Times as a primary news source, but making a limited number of articles free per month to people who are more casual readers or who are following links from other sites. More information from subsequent years would shed light on whether or not the paywall was working well enough to make a sustainable business year after year. The Times has the benefit of being the most widely read news source online, but will the market support the paywall price and will that price support the company in the long run. Are there other potential revenue streams that the Times could develop? If the actual journalism is the thing that they have that cannot be disrupted by the new technology, are there other ways to get paid for that journalism like syndication? Or are there other opportunities within the digital landscape to distribute and monetize their journalism like podcasts and videos?

3. Why are newspapers in trouble? What is the goal of the Times in creating the paywall?

Newspapers are in trouble because readership/subscriber number were down as well as decreasing revenues from advertising and classifieds. The goal of the paywall is to create another revenue stream as more and more readers are reading a digital format. Advertisers pay less to advertise digitally and readers were reading for free, so the Times was trying to capture some lost revenue.

4. Should the Times actively manage to transition from print to digital?

I think that there is no choice but to manage the transition. Newspapers had been using the same business model for decades and as long as the technology was static, the business model could be as well. However, when readers are not only accessing articles through a new medium but also using the new technology to take care of other needs historically met by newspapers such as classifieds, personals, public notice, the newspaper has no choice but to adapt to the new technology and also change the business model in order to survive.