In yesterday's mini-Tidbits roundup, I noted the TechCrunch analysis of ComScore's latest traffic stats for NYTimes.com -- done since the news site dropped Times Select, its final vestige of premium subscription content.
To recap, TechCrunch reported that NYTimes.com "gained 7.5 million readers worldwide from the end of August through the end of October (November numbers are not out yet). That is a 64 percent jump (to a total of 19.4 million). Similarly worldwide monthly page views surged 52 percent in that time period to 181 million. Other major news outlets like BusinessWeek.com (4.4 million readers in October), the WSJ.com (3.6 million, with a subscriber wall), and Wired.com (3.2 million) saw gains as well during the Fall, but nothing as dramatic as the NYTimes.com."
Yesterday, Toronto Globe & Mail tech writer Mathew Ingram read those tea leaves as more evidence that free is better. "There are issues with ComScore, as there are with most of the major measurement firms, but when combined with the New York Times traffic numbers that I recently mentioned from Nielsen, it's obvious where the overall trend is going."
Today, Steve Petersen of The Bivings Report continues this line of inquiry: "The Web analytics geek in me would love to see how the average time on site per user has changed in this time period. One would think that Times Select subscribers would spend more time on the site since they're paying for it and are probably Times fans. If that's correct, then perhaps the average time spent on the site has dropped since people who come for free are: 1) not paying for it and 2) aren't proving loyalty already by paying a fee."
