Why I Will Pay for The New York Times

It has come to pass. The New York Times has rolled out digital subscription packages. I feel conflicted about this because I believe in two competing principles: content sharing and premium content.

Contrary to some of the complaints on Twitter today, The New York Times is offering a package that enables you to access a subscription across devices and your computer. I am also happy to see that the Times was thoughtful about content discovery. They are making it possible for readers who come to articles through search, blogs and social media to read those individual articles. To read more you can look over their FAQ. Their letter to readers is informative as well.

I, for one, am happy to pay to access content from The New York Times for these reasons:

1. More often than not, you get what you pay for. I liken it to this video about the services business: The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations
2. If we want high quality reporting, we need to fund journalists.
3. The free press is an important principle in American culture and if we do not respect the Fourth Estate, we will end up with opinions propagated as facts.
4. Their iPad app is a thing of beauty. Maybe mine will update more frequently now that I have to pay for it.

John C. Abell at Wired also posted a thoughtful piece on this topic. I, for one, hope that this is a success and that we can create a long-term business model that supports high quality journalism. Access to information is a great asset, but when it comes to issues that shape our world, public policy, energy, and other fundamental and complex issues, we need to rely on journalists who can do the work necessary to uncover the opportunities and the failings that inform us all.