The New York Times Paywall

In this meeting, students analyzed how The New York Times website becoming a restricted site where most of the content was protected behind a "paywall" affected its revenue. There were several difficult issues to examine in determining the digital strategy for The Times: would consumers remain as engaged with a site protected by a paywall? Would advertisers react positively to such a move that walled off readers? Would readers value both the print and digital versions of the content, or would it become necessary to create new content? Students analyzed the key issues in transitioning a content business from the current print medium to the future digital medium, involving a deep exploration of how managers must understand product strategy to align the value creation process with the characteristics of the medium or channel, while keeping in mind the landscape of collaborators and competitors has been altered significantly by digital technology.