How’s that pay for content model working out James Dolan?

In late October, Newsday, the Long Island daily that the Dolans bought for $650 million, put its web site, newsday.com, behind a pay wall. The paper was one of the first non-business newspapers to take the plunge by putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been followed with interest. Could its fate be a sign of what others, including The New York Times, might expect?

So, three months later, how many people have signed up to pay $5 a week, or $260 a year, to get unfettered access to newsday.com?

The answer: 35 people.

The article goes on to point out that newspaper subscribers and people with Optimum cable get a free account so it’s not as if only 35 people visit the website. It’s just that only 35 people are willing to pay to do so. That’s less people that subscribe by email to Red Alerts. The quote that makes the piece:

“We’re the freebie newsletter that comes with your HBO,” sniffed one Newsday reporter.

Don’t flatter yourself.

Could it be that websites are best utilized as ways to advertise goods and products and not as products in their own right? Nah. That’s too simple an explanation.

h/t Drudge