Pattern Finder: FT: Free for Casual Users; Fee for Heads Down Users

Interesting catch by my Burton Group colleague Guy Creese. 

According to a story in The New York Times, the Financial Times "as of mid-October will allow users to get up to 30 articles a month for free, said John Ridding, chief executive of the newspaper. Anyone who wants to view more online material will have to subscribe to the site."

This is a very interesting subscription model. In the past, media sites have gone with the "all or nothing" route: either the content is free (The Washington Post) or it's available for a fee (The Wall Street Journal). The Financial Times, with its new pricing, is discriminating between heads down and casual users.

See Guy's post for more observations.

FWIW I've been reading FT technology articles for free for several months, as I start with the FT technology RSS feed; apparently the subscription model is circumvented when readers access articles via feed links.

Pattern Finder: FT: Free for Casual Users; Fee for Heads Down Users