Newsday to end free Web content

February 28, 2009 · Filed Under Business, News · Comment

New York newspaper Newsday’s parent company Cablevision Systems Corp. is now planning to charge its online readers for its paper’s web content. This announcement was made on Thursday during a conference call with analysts by Tom Rutledge, the chief operating officer of Cablevision.

Rutledge said, “When we purchased Newsday we were aware of the long-term issues facing the traditional newspaper industry. Our goal was, and is, to use our electronic network assets and subscriber relationships to transform the way news is distributed.”

“We plan to end distribution of free Web content and to make our news gathering capabilities service our customers,” Rutledge added further.

The top executive however did not divulge any further details about the plan. Cablevision purchased the Long Island-based Newsday from the Tribune Co. for 650 million US dollars the previous year.

The New York based Newsday (Newsday.com) is placed 11th on the Nieman list of the top 15 US newspaper websites with an average of 3.16 million unique visitors a month last year according to figures compiled by the Nieman Journalism Lab of Harvard University. After a successful execution of the proposed plan, Newsday would become only the second after The Wall Street Journal to charge for its content online. The print version has a circulation of about 400,000.

Tags: Cablevision Systems Corp, Newsday, Newsday.com, The Wall Street Journal, Web content