The US daily The New York Times (NYT) is nearing a decision to charge its core online readers, as the paper wraps up its assessment of the benefits and risks of restricting access to news on the web, says a media report.
Attributing to person familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that The New York Times is nearing a decision to charge its core online readers.
The report said that the publisher largely narrowed its focus to two pay options a month ago that involve keeping nytimes.com mostly open to readers who visit its site infrequently and don't drill down very deep.
Another approach is to use a meter that is triggered after a certain number of visits and prompts the reader to pay for additional access, the report added.
NYT has said it is also considering an approach, used by WSJ, that makes certain articles available only to people who pay for a subscription.
The decision, expected by the end of the month, would end a year of analysis.
"We will announce a decision when we believe that we have crafted the best possible business approach," the report quoted NYT spokesperson as saying.
The daily said that it was unclear how such a move would affect current NYT print subscribers.
Some newspapers that charge for online content make that material available free to their print subscribers or charge a cut rate.
