On second thought, the Times isn’t raising its price nearly high enough. $1.25? Hell, make it $2.50 a day. $5.00! In the old days, when you were monomedia, this would only drive readers away. But now, if your journalism is good and needed, it will drive people online, which is just where you need to push them. Rather than waiting for them to go online, get ahead of them. Yes, I know, the margins are lower but there’s not much you can do about that, about losing your monopoly and the value of scarcity. It’s reality. So go with that flow: Force people to go online. Force your advertisers to go there as the audience does. The old, limited product becomes smaller but, thanks to that $5 cover price, still profitable — until it isn’t anymore, and then you better have figured out your internet business model or you’re doomed anyway. So put an ATM next to every newsbox. Charge a fortune, Times.
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