More on New York's Newsday, its paywall and its (in)famous 35 paying subscribers.
As Peter Preston points out in the Observer, it could be a paywall no one will notice, because it comes with TV subscriptions. The owners of Newsday also own Optimum Cable, which supplies cable TV to 75% of Long Island homes – Newsday's backyard.
Preston says this is the "hidden factor that turns the argument on its head". Thus Newsday's paywall-guarded unique users figure for December was 1.5 million, which included the cable subscribers and not just the 35 souls who separately signed up.
Preston makes the link between this and the recent appointment of Gutej Sandhu as director of Times Digital. And where does Sandhu, tasked with implementing the paywall, hail from? He was chief information officer and general manager/senior vice president, digital, for Star TV in India and Hong Kong.
Over to Preston:
Now watch closely as 10 million Sky subscribers get an offer they can't reasonably refuse. How about beyond-the-wall access to four big British papers (plus an array of tempting other goodies) for as little as 50p extra a month? £6m a month for that is £72m – in a trice the losses on Wapping's more upmarket offerings are turned to profit – with plenty more tugs on the Sky pay lever to come.
I have said it before, so I will say it again:
"It is fascinating to watch News International turning bit by bit into BSkyB before your eyes."
