The New York Times and the Paid Content Model

So The New York Times is now charging for digital content. Well that is if you want unrestricted access to the online edition. Is this the end of free content? Or is The New York Times trying to jump back in time to 1996 when online content frequently came with a premium.

 

Neither.

 

The New York Times can get away with this move because…well…. they are actually The New York Times. The Huffington Post does not have reporters embedded in Libya and Iraq. Local newspapers can barely compete with Patch.com and other local news sites. With the exception of The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and a few others, other major newspapers and magazine just don’t carry the same force of nature to demand a premium to read their content.

 

 

The Paid Content Model will be a small and exclusive club. The New York Times can get away with it because they do provide unique content with a cult following. But remember this new venture may not even be profitable. If online advertising falls by a larger amount than the revenue from new subscribers brings in, The New York Times may have to revert back one day. Maybe that’s why the stock price (NYT) has been a laggard.

 

 

So don’t start calculating just how much money your website content could generate quite yet under the Paid Content Model. Instead, carry on. Keep your content fresh, relevant and link-worthy and your unpaid content model will do just fine.

 

 

 

 

HTML5 and SEO: Why? When? How?

The new revision of the web’s markup language is called HTML5. The recent flareup between Apple and Adobe over the exclusion of Flash on Apple products has brought HTML5 back to the front burner for web development. Why? That’s because programmers already like the new page elements and APIs for video, audio, and geolocation that HTML offers. Now throw in that Steve Jobs has publicly backed HTML5 as the future for video integration and things get really interesting.

So what does a site owner or business owner need to know about HTML5?

1. HTML 5 SEO 

The new HTML elements include tags for article, aside, audio, canvas, command, datalist, details, embed, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, keygen, mark, meter, nav, output, progress, rp, rt, ruby, section, source, summary, time, and video. These tags are semantic and have the ability to give a greater depth of understanding to search engines exactly what the content on a site is about. If a search engine, which is very accustomed to seeing all content wrapped in <div> and <p> tags, can now differentiate between articles, sidebar content, header content, etc. – quality and relevancy of search results may increase. Search engines just might get a little smarter and algorithms may be adjusted for the new tags. Who might benefit?

Sites with good relevant content.

And who potentially loses?

Sites which have gamed the system with SEO tricks and not quality content and strong link building.

 

2. SIMPLICITY and SPEED

Marking up a site in HTML5 should also greatly reduce code. Not only will this speed up load times, but it will also enforce cleaner and more organized code. Visitors don’t care about the code, so how does this help?

Simple. Productivity.

Editing and creating new content within Dreamweaver or a content management system should be easier for small companies and larger companies will have easier implementation of their back-end software.

 

3. DEVELOPER PARADISE

HTML5 is geared towards web applications. In fact, it will be the first version of HTML to make video and graphic integration possible on sites without plugins, codecs, and extensions. Site owners may finally have a standard for which they can invest in application technology without worrying about becoming obsolete. Other developer-rich features include geolocation APIs and a 2-D drawing tool for websites called Canvas. E-commerce applications may also be improved in the new HTML markup language.

 

So what should a site owner or business owner do about HTML5?

Be prepared.

It’s not perfect and it will bound to be controversial, but HTML5 may also end up dominating web applications. When you add in the ability to code sites cleaner for search engine optimization as well, it may make sense to convert to HTML5 in the near future. Local website consultants can tell you exactly what might be required to convert your site. In some cases, the conversion could be extremely easy and in others the task can be more involved to assure backward-compatibility. Even if you don’t convert yet, stay informed about HTML5 development.