N.Y. Times tests website fees on Canadians

The New York Times is using Canadian readers to test out a new system of charging  for access to its website.

The newspaper hopes to roll out a new set of fees for all users  in late March that allows limited viewing of its website for free but includes charges for smartphone and tablet apps and for more extensive reading.

The company is now fine-tuning this digital subscription system on Canadian readers.

"The user base in Canada is similar to the types of users we have in the States so it seemed like it was a very good test case," said Eileen Murphy, the New York Times' vice-president of corporate communications.

Readers in Canada can read up to 20 articles a month for free, but once they click on their 21st article, they will be asked to pay $15 US every four weeks for access to the website and a mobile phone app.

There will be two other forms of subscription:

• $20 for web access and an iPad app.
• $35 for a plan with web access, iPad and mobile apps.

Subscribers to the print edition of the newspaper can get any of these features without additional cost.

'The challenge now is to put a price on our work without walling ourselves off from the global network.'— Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman

"A few years ago it was almost an article of faith that people would not pay for the content they accessed via the web," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chair of the New York Times Co., said in a statement to employees Thursday.

He pointed out the need to tap new sources of revenue to pay for the kind of journalism the Times produces. Newspaper subscription sales and advertising continue to decline, and advertising on the internet has not risen enough to compensate.

"The challenge now is to put a price on our work without walling ourselves off from the global network, to make sure we continue to engage with the widest possible audience," he said.

The newspaper is trying to construct a system that will continue to attract a wide range of casual readers, while encouraging the most engaged readers to pay for what they formerly had for free.

The New York Times says it has more than 30 million monthly readers. It is the largest newspaper to consider a digital subscription fee and, if it works, the model will likely be adopted by others in the industry.

The newspaper plans to begin its subscription plan for all readers on March 28.