Paid-Content Model Goes Bye-Bye

As reported in Brand Republic, The Financial Times of London is turning away from the paid-content model in news.

FT joins The New York Times in a switch away from paid content. Yes, you can now read Maureen Dowd for free, just like before the advent of Times Select.

In an increasingly digital world, bloggers boost a news organization’s relevancy by linking to noteworthy content. But under the paid content model, even if I subscribe, my readers can’t see the article if they are not also subscribers.

Case in point:

I had intended to write a post about an article in Ad Age by my former colleague Avi Dan (now at Euro/RSCG). But Ad Age, ever the Digital Dinosaurs, protect their content behind a subscriber wall. The result: their content is not widely circulated in the blogsphere.

In the meantime, we can now enjoy all of The New York Times (and soon FT as well) proving once again that the Web 2.0 world is about connectedness.