Paul WhoZat On Times Select

Mickey Kaus mocked the recent NY Times announcement that approximately 135,000 folks were paying for Times Select, joining another 135,000 home subscribers who penetrated the  penetrated the free sign-up maze:

Are you impressed that TimesSelect has attracted "approximately" 135,000 paying*** customers?** At $45 a head (halfway between the introductory price and the regular price) that's $6.1 million. Bigger than Arianna! But if someone--say, Richard Mellon Scaife--had come along a year ago and offered the NYT $6.1 million to radically limit the reach of its (largely) liberal columnists, would the paper have taken the deal

On that very topic we have Paul Krugman, who at one time was one of the most influential columnists in America, telling an interviewer how he feels about Times Select:

There’s no question that for the columnists, Times Select was a really significant reduction in readership and it happened just as the dam is breaking on the indictments and all of that, and now people like Frank Rich and myself who would normally be emailed all over the place are suddenly behind a pay wall. On the other hand, the Times is a business, and it has to pay its way. It is encouraging that now columnists are a profit sector, because they can see who generates revenue. I would certainly have had more internet hits by a large multiple right now if they hadn’t put in Times Select, but I’m living with it.

MORE:  Sit down and brace yourself for this shocker, as P Krug picks the blogs:

Do you read a lot of blogs?

Yea, I do, they work as a… some of them do real reporting, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo. Some of them serve as kind of information navigators, stuff that I would not have heard about otherwise, I pick up. That’s one of the reasons I read Brad DeLong’s or, yea, I do love DailyKos, just to see what’s come up. Some of them are a lot of fun. I’m a fan of Atrios, some people at one point actually thought was me.

Hearts are breaking at the Democratic Underground.

MORE:  For other lefties, please - Josh Marshall and Brad Delong are fine, but try Jane Hamsher, Jeralyn Merritt, Max Sawicky, Kevin Drum - introduce some reality to your reality based reading.

Comments

[TP]

I wonder if Kristof has has any clue that the NYT will now be assigning all of the legal expenses he generates to his P&L and, at some point making a decision as to how much future liability they will be willing to take. It is an interesting shareholder question.

[kim]

My lord, Josh and his yellow cake foolishness put me over the edge. Didn't someone write that he acts like he wants to be press secretary for a Democratic administration?

And c'mon Paul, baby, admit it. You're a DU devotee, too.
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[kim]

When the Sulzbergers ranked truth over money, the latter saluted the former. Now that ideology has substituted in command, money's considering fragging.
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[TM]

And c'mon Paul, baby, admit it. You're a DU devotee, too.

Talk about blocking - *that's* who I was trying to remember.

[kim]

I'm curious if the pros know the reason for the high volume in NYT stock on one day in September.
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[Jim E.]

Hamsher has incorrect link.

[TM]

Thanks.

[Rick Ballard]

Kim,

Here is a price/volume chart (scroll down a littlet). The stock appears to have gapped down a bit the day before the Sept. volume bump. That might have triggered either buy or sell orders based on price percentage fluctuations. Note that there was a two day spike in volume in June too.

If Pinch was tossed under a train by the board, the stock would be a super buy. The focus on a declining market niche (lockstep liberals) is preventing the realization of a decent return for shareholders. Typical of the Sulzbergers.

Drawing a veil over the editorial page is actually a good business move. The constant derision of the paper as a propaganda organ of the most liberal wing of the Democratic party doesn't help sales in a population that is moving right rather than left. The niche market is being protected and apparently, that's all Sulzberger cares about. I note that the stock price has improved since the Times has decided to hide the editorial page.

I would buy neither a copy the paper nor the stock as long as current management remains. They serve themselves, not stockholders.

[TP]

Rick,

It might be worth examining some minority rights issues--given the level of control the Sulzbergers have--just to watch them report the abuses of other public companies and ignore those in their own.

Minority rights shareholder suit, anybody?

[kim]

Might be worth buying to gain standing.
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[clarice]

Rick--I like your argument..we walled them off so the rest might live..

[Rick Ballard]

TP,

You couldn't do it on based upon hiding the editorial page. That decision seems to have improved the stock price. Now, if Sulzberger follows through with a surcharge to read the drivel that he passes off as political reporting he could really raise shareholder return.

Following a declining niche market is not necessarily a bad business decision if the market is dumb enough and willing to fork over increasing amounts of money for what amounts to their security blanket. He knows his base.

[Jim E.]

Rick Ballard,
Are you saying that the NY Times is alone in plummeting newsstand sales? As you must know, the entire industry, including magazines, is having major problems. I don't think, for example, either the Wash Times or NY Post are success stories. In fact, those publications, neither of which can be called "liberal," lose tons of money. The Times may be suffering, but it's not unique to the Times and it's not because of its so-called liberal bias.

[max]

The stock price rose mainly because a major Knight-Ridder shareholder (Private Capital Management?) said K-R should be sold. It and several other newspaper stocks, incuding the nyt, rose sharply over the next few days, until the market realized there were no buyers.

The most interesting thing to me about TimesSelect is how few of the nyt's subscribers have bothered to sign up for free. I don't know the breakdown between subscriptions and newsstand sales for the nyt, but if ssubcriptions are 50% of toal sales then only a fairly small % of subscribers want to read the 'flailing four' online. Perhaps it's a reflection of the nyt's aging subscription base.

[richard mcenroe]

"reality based" blogging is like "meat flavored" spaghetti sauce. The nuanced name does not disguise the lack of the substance named...

[Rick Ballard]

JimE,

No, the Times is definitely not alone. The Trib is a mess too. Nor would I ever suggest that anyone purchase NEWS Corp. They are all rich men's toys, although Murdoch seems to have a fairly good business approach in comparison to the others.

I would agree that all advertising vehicles are going through a bit of an upheaval at the moment. I haven't seen anyone come up with an understandable strategy that accounts for the change in reading/viewing habits that is occuring. Making your niche pay more for crappy quality may work out well for the Times. They do know their chickens.

"so-called liberal bias" - that was good for a chuckle.

[Creepy Dude]

Krugman certianly reads JustOneMinute too because an obscure fact I expressly publicized here in a comment appeared in the opening lines of his column shortly thereafter. Coincidences happen, but not in this case.

[TM]

Irish, I am going to follow behind you right to the top!

(Do you remember the obscure fact? I would love to check that out).

[TexasToast]

CD

Ain't if fun to see your phrases/gimmicks/ facts picked up other places? I've seen some of my own BS make its way to other venues. Tom has more oomph then even he realizes.

[Creepy Dude]

Yes-TM-can you search your archives? I couldn't see a way.

As is my wont here, I was bashing Bush. I expressly pointed out in some thread not very long ago that the real ending of Andersen's "The Emperor's New Suit" was that the procession continues on in denial after the little boy points out the emperors nakedness-but most people forget that's the key point of the story. The implication for Bush is obvious.

Shortly thereafter Krugman opened his column pointing out the real ending of the tale, and the whole column was just a riff on that theme. Coinky-dink?

This was all in the last few weeks.

[Rick Ballard]

TT,

It afflicts those on the right as well as those on the left, too. Steyn "borrowed" a concept from one of my co-contributors yesterday. And Reynolds picked up a couple from comments I left over at Roger Simon's blog. So the "borrowing" appears to cut across the entire spectrum.

[Creepy Dude]

Never mind I found it TM:

Here's my original comment on October 28-

Most people forget the end of the story:

“But he has nothing on at all,” said a little child at last. “Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child,” said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. “But he has nothing on at all,” cried at last the whole people. That made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, “Now I must bear up to the end.” And the chamberlains walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried the train which did not exist.

Posted by: Creepy Dude | October 28, 2005 at 08:13 AM

Here's Krugman's column opener on November 4, 2005:

"Hans Christian Andersen understood bad rulers. "The Emperor's New Suit" doesn't end with everyone acclaiming the little boy for telling the truth. It ends with the emperor and his officials refusing to admit their mistake. I've laid my hands on additional material, which Andersen failed to publish, describing what happened after the imperial procession was over."

Coinky-dink?

Krugman reads JustOneMinute (and, ahem, quotes the right people).

[Appalled Moderate]

Hmm. I have never seen him pick up any of my stuff. I mean, I think I'd recognize anything I'd contributed by the typos.

[Jim E.]

Creepy Dude--
That's awesome, if true. That was one of Krugman's columns that got publicized (and reposted on blogs), even despite the Times Select wall, which is why I could read it.

Paul Krugman--
Hi. You rule!

[Creepy Dude]

I know-that's how I read it. It's true. TM wouldn't pull a Rove and conspire with me to fake timestamp his archives would he? Don't answer.

FWIW sure it could be a coincidence-but I figure giving our host something to help him in his favorite hobby-Krugman bashing-is the least I could do.

[Pat Curley]

I've been saying for a long time that the Times' pay effort is self-defeating in the end. Suppose over time that they manage to increase the number who pay for the columns by five times, so their revenue from that Times Select is $30 million. Great news, right?

Except that the $30 million is coming from a well-identified group of 8 or so columnists, who, quite naturally, will demand larger salaries, or they will go off on their own. Hence the Times is just acting as a conduit for funneling money from subscribers to the pundits.

[Gary Maxwell]

Pat

the logical conclusion that one or more will surely come to see if the subscriptions do indeed climb. Well paid and a journalist, wow we are in a new paradigm now.

The model seems to be that of Rev Moon, BTW. Simply give me all your money and then hang on my every word. Hey it works for the Moonies, why not the Democrat wing of the Democrat Party?

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Funny he never picked up on anything I've said about him on Semi-Daily Journal. Especially since J Bradford headlined for him that'd I won my bet about his claim that Thomas White was engaged in multi-million dollar stock fraud, would blow up.

Speaking of emperors without any clothes.

[TP]

Before, I just thought of Krugman as a liar but should I now think of him as a thief?

[Miracle Max]

Them pictures I have of you with Carla Katz keep working wonders . . .

[Gary Maxwell]

and a liar still of course.

[JohnH]

CreepyDude

You may be right that Krugman reads this blog. But another possibility is that someone read it here and started passing the point around. Krugman could have heard it 5th hand or 10th hand.
I get included on emails all the time that pass on stuff that someone finds really enlightening. While my circle of acquaintences is about 50-50 in terms of left vs. right leaners, over 90% of the "look at this" emails are from angry left-wingers. And lately, the "jokes" all revolve around George Bush being drowned, shot, or otherwise meeting a violent end.

[SteveMG]

Hey Paul.

As Jim E. said, you rule. Unfortunately you rule over cloud cuckoo land where the property values are insane, and so are the residents.

Feel free to include that in your next column. It's almost Christmas and I'm feeling charitable.

And thanks Jim E. for once again dropping the mask.

SMG

[R C Dean]

Interesting, no, that the blogs he lists as his regular reading are solidly lefty/anti-Bush/Dem partisan.

Not surprising, but interesting. And astonishing that he doesn't even feel the need to pretend that he goes outside the echo chamber.

[TM]

In my quick research, I have discovered a few things:

The date selection feature on the
advanced Google blog search is not working for me. I wanted to see who was making the emperor analogy before the Krugman column, and the answer is, not many.

That said, I remember that when Miers was announced, my brother-in-law described it as an "emperor has no clothes" moment, so the meme may have been drifitng in that context.

But even so - no one I have seen made a special point of the ending.

Very cool.

[JM Hanes]

TM --

Consider taking a page from the bloggers who have Friday caption contests; this tidbit is just crying out for its own custom headline:

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places...
Krugman Caught Outing Anonymous Sources!
Incest Plagues Reality Based Community*

*[Premium Content, Select Subscribers Only]

[kim]

All the News We Select to Sell.
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[kim]

And yet another cool thing is that extra ending usually does not apply to the fable. Most only remember that the little boy spoke the truth.

Similarly, I'll bet you don't know that the little boy who cried wolf didn't get eaten, instead opened a sausage business, and was later a famous diplomat to the heart of darkness, and only died of a theophylline overdose.
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[A Senior Administration Official]

Re "at one time (Krugman) was one of the most influential columnists in America:" We posted a Blogpulse chart showing Krugman's declining influence in the blogosphere ever since the TimesSelect wall went up -- it's at Independent Sources here. Or maybe he just hasn't written anything interesting in two months!