Problem #1, they did not port classified adds to the internet.
Problem #2, it's a free website that requires registration to view add supported content without providing a reason to register.
Problem #3, high cost of content. It might not cost much to show a page but creating it costs more than user or software generated sites.
Solution: Either drop the registration or add some social aspect that uses the registration. If someone stumbles on a NYT article from Google and needs to register to view other pages there is a problem.
PS: Advertising is the only form of micro payments of the web deal with it or develop something new.
Explicit is better, but you can tell a lot about someone by tracking their page views and click throughs. I remember seeing an article/presentation, "How to tell I'm a girl", but I cant find the reference. Some of it is pretty simple. If they are reading the sports page, they might be interested in sports. There is a bit of a problem with single computer households, but not huge.
The main thing is get engagement first; ask for the registration later.
I agree that these are issues with the NYT website, but I'm not sure that they'd be a success even if they had classifieds (Craigslist?) or removed registration. Even with registration, they're consistently one of the most popular news sites. Traffic isn't the issue. The problem is that traffic alone isn't worth much anymore.
Comments
Problem #1, they did not port classified adds to the internet.
Problem #2, it's a free website that requires registration to view add supported content without providing a reason to register.
Problem #3, high cost of content. It might not cost much to show a page but creating it costs more than user or software generated sites.
Solution: Either drop the registration or add some social aspect that uses the registration. If someone stumbles on a NYT article from Google and needs to register to view other pages there is a problem.
PS: Advertising is the only form of micro payments of the web deal with it or develop something new.
You don't need to register to read NYT. It's a cookie thing: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=460294
The registration is almost certainly there to improve their ad targeting and CPM rates. If they removed it, it would probably hurt the bottom line.
Explicit is better, but you can tell a lot about someone by tracking their page views and click throughs. I remember seeing an article/presentation, "How to tell I'm a girl", but I cant find the reference. Some of it is pretty simple. If they are reading the sports page, they might be interested in sports. There is a bit of a problem with single computer households, but not huge.
The main thing is get engagement first; ask for the registration later.
I agree that these are issues with the NYT website, but I'm not sure that they'd be a success even if they had classifieds (Craigslist?) or removed registration. Even with registration, they're consistently one of the most popular news sites. Traffic isn't the issue. The problem is that traffic alone isn't worth much anymore.