New York Times Paywall is Up, Video Still Free…For Now

This week the New York Times launched its “groundbreaking new business model in which the news website will charge people money to consume the goods and services it provides.”

The source with all the news that’s fit to print now places all its content (save 20 giveaway articles per calendar month per user and articles readers find via social media and search engines) behind a paywall. That goes for all the articles on its iPhone application, too, with very few exceptions. One of those exceptions is video.

So, why can users of the New York Times iPhone app view NYT video content for free? Are the videos meant to serve as a free taste of all the content you can consume behind the paywall? No. Do the comparatively high CPMs of video advertising make it lucrative for the company to serve as many mobile streams as possible? Good idea, but still no. Did the video content creators negotiate some type of agreement outside of whatever standard contract the New York Times Company gives its reporters? Nah ah.

For the answer, I went to the Grey Lady herself. Kristin Mason at the New York Times told me why the video is gratis:

The Video and Most-Emailed sections are going to be free for a limited time after global launch. After the initial launch period, the Top News section will be the only section that remains free….We are making some minor changes to the design of [the Video and Most-Emailed] sections. While we implement those changes, we’re pleased to allow readers to continue enjoying those sections.

If you need your free video fix from the NYT when you’re on the go, be sure to get it while you can. Soon you’ll have to concede the price of a movie ticket per month to consume video news stories from one of the most respected sources on the planet. But all of that shouldn’t matter. Even if you’re a moving picture junkie, don’t know how to read, and the videos forever stream free, you should still pay for the New York Times.