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A comment on New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data. Parent comment

Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by shadowgovt on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:17AM (#23235774)
Unfortunately, what has been true since the beginning of newspaper time changes in the digital era, as every newspaper has learned painfully.

If too many users don't expect to see ads once they subscribe, then it doesn't matter what the cost model is; NYT has to adapt to the market's demands, change their costs, or shut down.

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Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by fma on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @11:38AM (#23236036)
They could have multiple tiers.

1) Free = 10 articles per month 2) Basic subscription = Unlimited articles, with ads 3) Premier subscription = Unlimited articles and no ads.

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Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by Kylekramer on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @01:22PM (#23237484)
Existence of Tier 3 reduces Tier 2's value more than money taken from Tier 3.

NYT's sales pitch to advertisers is access to the intellectual/monetary elite. Saying "here, you can access only the less spendy ones" isn't going to be good.

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Re:New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data by 52-6F-62 on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:52PM (#23239343)
I find it a little funny that you're picking on NYT for that one. They were one of the first to offer digital-only subscriptions and their numbers have been climbing steadily since around 2011 when the introduced their metered paywall.

https://www.statista.com/chart/3755/digital-subscribers-of-t...

It's not that users don't expect to see ads that revenue is down. It's that the ad-sell business has been effectively taken over by a few large actors who promise all kinds of growth because of their targeted/tracking ad networks.

And presently ad revenue is down even further because many businesses first spending cuts were in advertising for Q2/Q3 since they aren't operating anyway. That said, this last point is only speaking from my own present industry experience.

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