Many readers refuse to scale The Times' paywall

[Alastair]

After kicking the idea around for a good while, News Corp International and, by proxy, its subsidiary, the major UK newspaper The Times, has finally enacted a paywall around the Times site, making users register in advance of a planned paid content strategy.

Announced nearly a year ago, the plan gained a bit more momentum in March, when worldwide News Corp leader Rupert Murdoch suggested the changes would come "Within the next few weeks to months."

That's why, beginning in early June a new Times site, thetimes.co.uk, was set up, requiring visitors to register for a 'free preview' of content from the publication. News Corp subsequently redirected all queries to the old site - timesonline.co.uk - to the new URL.

And, its online readership has plummeted.

In the month of May, The Times commanded between 4 and 5 per cent of daily market share on any given day, which dropped, as of Wednesday 23 June, to a lowly 1.81 per cent daily market share.

[Euan]

It's a bit hard to read the paper online when your sitting on the loo...I think there will always be a need for printed newspapers, how many London cabbies have a copy of a newspaper in the cab everyday? Not to mention Lorry drivers, salesmen, and people at work who don't have, or are not permitted to use the internet for personal use?

[Alastair]

I don't have much spare time to read newspapers and don't even have much time to go to newspaper web sites. I do have a wee 13" TV beside my computer and so do watch the news on that. Here in Canada I cycle between CTV, CNN and BBC. I find that CTV and BBC will provide world news but CNN really only cover American news unless it is some massive disaster.

Alastair