Beginning with March figures - a full quarter before News International erects its first pay wall in June - News International's the Times Online and The Sun have suspended public reporting of monthly ABC website traffic figures.
While the ABC is still auditing the publisher's traffic numbers, it is not publishing them, per the request of the publishing company, reports paidContent. This means that it will be difficult to compare pre- and post-pay wall traffic figures to see how many readers the Times Online will lose when it begins charging for content beginning in June.
Last week, the Times Online offered a preview of its new website and announced that it would charge 1 pound a day or 2 pounds a week to access the site.
February Traffic Figures
In February, the Times Online - which is the website of The Times and the Sunday Times - saw 20.4 million uniques, and an average of 5 million pageviews per day.
But both Times Online and Sun Online have been losing momentum in traffic growth recently, possibly due to cutting back on search engine optimization and other promotion in advance of putting up the pay wall, writes the Guardian. Both have fallen behind the Mail Online, Guardian.co.uk and telegraph.co.uk.
Brand New Sites, Not Just Paying for Old…
Both Times Online and the Sun sites will be relaunched, with content that will more closely link to their print editions as well as additional features such as a daily debate and a Culture Planner tool.
The moves come as News International owner Rupert Murdoch has become determined to bring in income from consumers in addition to online ads. Murdoch says News Corp will soon charge for all of its news sites, including FoxNews.
But Will Consumers Pay?
Last September, a survey conducted by industry consultants Greg Harmon and Greg Swanson for the American Press Institute indicated that more than half of newspaper publishers believe readers will pay to access online newspaper content.
However, as paidContent points out, a poll last year from PCUK/Harris Interactive found that only 5% of people will pay to read their favorite newspaper online.
