No One Wants To Pay To Read Newsday

Newsday may want to rethink their pay-to-read plan. The Long Island based newspaper, which in October launched a pay wall, meaning people would have to sign up and pay $5 a week ($260 a year) to get unlimited access to the website, has registered a total of just 35 users in the three months since its inception. Yep, 35. 

That astoundingly low figure was revealed in a newsroom-wide meeting last week by publisher Terry Jimenez when a reporter asked how many people had signed up for the site. Mr. Jimenez didn't know the number off the top of his head, so he asked a deputy sitting near him. He replied 35.

Michael Amon, a social services reporter, asked for clarification.

"I heard you say 35 people," he said, from Newsday's auditorium in Melville. "Is that number correct?"

Mr. Jimenez nodded.

It's almost as though James Dolan, Chairman of the Board of Cablevision, the paper's owner, can't do anything right. See also: Knicks, New York. (The relaunch of the Newsday site cost around $4 million; with the 35 subscribers, the paper has grossed about $9,000.)

And a brief reminder: Newsday is not the same as Newsweek.