TimesSelect Passes 390,000 Subs But Fewer Than Half Paying Extra For Privilege

Finally getting a chance to look deeper at some TimesSelect numbers provided by NYTCO during the 4Q earnings call … TimesSelect has passed 390,000 subs; questioned by an analyst, Martin Nisenholtz said “approximately 40 percent are non-subscribers.” President and CEO Janet Robinson stepped in with a slight correction: “They’re all subscribers – 40 percent are people who are subscribing through the online, so they are paid subscribers. The remaining 60 percent are home-delivery subscribers that receive TimesSelect free of charge, just as a clarification.”

Before I get back to the numbers. Robinson’s comments are worth noting, especially in light of the upcoming Feb. 6 home delivery 4-percent price increase that will push full print subscriptions past $600 a year. NYTCO execs want to show subscribers how much additional value they’ve gained during the four years since the last increase; TimesSelect plays an important role. In the words of Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and GM of the Times, it’s “a value enhancement to subscribers.” Ditto for the upcoming TimesPoints program. (A note from Heekin-Canedy about the increase included in Sunday’s edition touts the “free access” to “the powerful online resource” and the “free rewards program.” Unfortunately, it didn’t include directions on how to subscribe to TimesSelect.)

The numbers: On Nov. 9, 2005, TimesSelect reported about 270,000 subscribers, saying that roughly half were paying subs. Of those, about 15,000 came to TimesSelect from News Tracker, meaning about 120,000 paying subs signed up in the first 52 days. Not a shabby uptake rate for a new service. Since then, the Times has added 120,000 subs. The company didn’t provide a breakdown of the new subs during the call but if you work from the 60/40 split using 390,000 as the base, 234,000 are print/online subs while 156,000 online-only. That suggests that TimesSelect has netted about 20,000 additional paying subs since early November. Again, not bad uptake numbers for a recently launched product; a lot of operations would be ecstatic to average about 1,300 new subs a day over the first four months. And it’s important on the ad front and for retention that more print subs are taking advantage. But the apparent slowdown in paid subs suggests the Times has picked the low-hanging fruit and will have to work even harder to grow the paying side of TimesSelect.

One recent move could provide a boost — the paper has started TimesSelect University, a half-price annual sub for college and university students/faculty.

E&P: NYTimes.com E-I-C Len Apcar: “We’ve always said that if we could get a couple of hundred thousand in the first year, that would be good. … That’s very good for January.” Also, a Times representative told E&P that the numbers do not include trial subs who cancelled.

NYTCO transcript (edited)

Related: TimesSelect: Doing the Math

TimesSelect Passes 270,000 Subscribers In 52 Days; Half Are Online-Only Subs

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