View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Publishers
  2. Digital Journalism
November 15, 2010updated 23 Aug 2022 7:22pm

Jim Chisholm: Times paywall will fail

By Dominic Ponsford

Media consultant Jim Chisholm told the Society of Editors Conference today that the Times paywall gambit will fail.

Chisholm noted that in terms of millions of pounds of advertising per hour spent with various media platforms in the UK, newspapers are doing comparatively well. He said his research suggests that £4.2m is spent on advertising per hour spent by consumers on TV, he said £1.2m is spent on the radio, £8.2m online and £23.5m on newspapers.

He noted that the average reader spends 30 minutes a day with a national newspaper versus around four minutes with a national newspaper website and said: ‘This is why the Times paywall will fail, because people are already spending so little time online.”

He added that the Times paywall project ‘can’t work because the amount of money they will lose through lost advertising is far greater than the amount made up for with their paywall…If the Times are going to charge and the Guardian and Telegraph aren’t, readers are just going to move somewhere else because they are reading on average four newspapers a day online.”

Chisholm added that those who argue newspaper print circulations are being hit by giving content away for free online have got it wrong.

He said: ‘There’s no statistical evidence that the internet has damaged circulation any more than a whole range of other factors. I’ve not been able to find any evidence of this anywhere, and I’ve studied this in a dozen different markets.”

The Times revealed earlier this month that since puttingThe Times and Sunday Times websites behind paywalls in early June the titles had attracted 50,000 new monthly subscribers and a cumulative total of a further 50,000-plus pay as you go online readers.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

The free to air Times Online website used to attract around 20 million unique users a month.

Jim Chisholm’s presentation slides to the Society of Editors Conference

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network