TimesSelect Now Up to 330K Subscribers

By: Jay DeFoore The New York Times Co. said its TimesSelect online subscription product is now up to 330,000 subscribers, an increase of 60,000 over the previous month.

On Nov. 9, the company said the paid service had attracted a total of 270,000 subscribers, with about half of those agreeing to pay the $7.95 monthly fee or $49.95 annual price. (The Times said the other half of the 270,000 number was comprised of the paper's print subscribers who gained access to TimesSelect for no additional fee.)

TimesSelect launched in September to much fanfare, and as the newspaper industry struggles with declining circulation and increasing competition for Internet users, talk of charging for online content is beginning to gain traction (see this report from today's publisher's conference in Belgium and this story from the American Journalism Review).

Times spokesperson Catharine Mathis would not break down the number of current online-only TimesSelect accounts versus print subscribers accessing the premium content for free, but she did say the company is "very pleased" with its progress thus far.

For the month of November, total Internet ad revenues at The New York Times Co.'s three media groups increased 30.5% due to strong growth in display advertising and in all classified advertising categories. Year-to-date Internet ad revenues grew 29.4%.

For the full-year 2005, the company expects to generate approximately $194 to $198 million in revenue from Internet-related businesses, including its digital archives, NYTimes.com, Boston.com, the Web sites of its Regional and Broadcast Media Groups, and About.com, which was acquired last March. In total, the Internet businesses are expected to account for about 6% of the Company's revenues this year

Looking to 2006, the company said it expected to see continuing "very strong revenue growth" for all of its digital properties. About.com in particular is expected to have double-digit revenue and operating profit growth, with "little or no dilution."