The Times UK News and The Sunday Times UK have begun charging for a majority of their online content.  Access to the site’s content will be available for 1 pound a day or 2 pounds a week.  Subscribers to the print edition will receive access to the online content for free.

Probably not coincidentally, The Guardian and Trinity Mirror have reported rises in online traffic as the Times’ traffic has dropped nearly 50%.

For years newspapers have been trying to figure out a way to charge for their content.  Not surprisingly, they’ve found that the advertising only model isn’t driving enough revenue to support.  Newspapers argue that their product has a value, and that the consumer should be willing to pay for it.

Unfortunately, the cat is already out of the bag.  News content is readily available online at no cost.  Paid content models only work if the content is truly unique and of value to the consumer.  In the case of Times UK News and The Sunday Times UK, if their content is worth paying for … they’ll make out like bandits.  But as we’ve seen, the simple act of creating a pay wall with the subscription site has significantly negatively impacted site traffic.

But is converting free content sites to paid content sites the only, or even the best, option ?  News sites have plenty of other alternatives for generating revenue.  The simple act of requiring users to sign up for a free account to view content can allow the users to be profiled and tracked, providing highly targeted advertising opportunities which command higher CPMs than traditional banner advertising.  Free to Paid models where users have access to some content which is free and other content which requires a subscription,  local search advertising beyond simple banner ads, co-registration campaigns,  games and entertainment, and transaction models where the paper makes incremental income per transaction offer  additional revenue opportunities.

With so many other revenue models that have yet to be explored completely, it seems foolish to pull the trigger requiring all members to pay to view content.

We’ll have to wait to see if the Times UK News and The Sunday Times UK gamble pays off (and rest assured the entire newspaper industry is watching cautiously).