To quote Heath Ledger as the Joker: “if you’re good at something, never do it for free.”
That seems to be the thinking of late around the corporate towers of the New York Times.
And the “joke” could very well end up on lovers of the original mobile content provided by the venerable but financially struggling newspaper.
At some point soon, it is likely that the New York Times will begin charging users to access its news coverage on mobile devices.
Until now, the popular service has been free.
Citing lost revenue opportunities, the company is eager to move forward with aggressive plans to improve the service for which they will now charge.
“Mobile offers a better opportunity for paid content,” says a NY Times executive to Bloomberg News. “For publishers to offer their content for free in the mobile platform forever without getting paid very much money, I don’t think it’s going to be tenable.”
For now at least, The New York Times mobile content is available free of charge on the Apple iPhone.
