The New York Times digital paywall went live globally yesterday, after months of anticipation. The paper is offering access to NYTimes.com plus a smartphone app for $15 a month, website access plus a tablet app for $20, or full digital access for $35 (hence no discount for smartphone AND tablet access). For now, a four-week trial is available at 99 cents.

Just before the launch, Martin Nisenholtz, Times' senior vice president for digital operations, spoke to the Newspaper Association of America convention in Dallas, where Poynter's Steve Myers live-blogged his speech.

The digital paywall will provide flexibility: at its launch, 20 free articles a month will be offered to non-subscribers, and Nisenholtz said that the meter could be adjusted to offer more or fewer articles depending on levels of advertising and leakage. Links are 'free' via search and social media after the limit of 20 has run out.

On the paper's mobile apps, both smartphone and tablet, the Top News section will remain free of charge, but all other sections will only be available to digital subscribers.

As Poynter's Damon Kiesow noted, the Times is implementing its subscriptions for mobile apps well before Apple's deadline of June 30 for publishers to offer in-app subscriptions via iTunes. Subscribing via iTunes is far easier for consumers, with a one-click process, but it means that publishers have to give 30% of the revenue brought in to Apple.

The paper is using the introduction of the digital subscriptions to move to keep tighter control over its control. Copyright controls are tighter, as are rules for the paper's APIs and RSS feeds, to stop unauthorized reuse of content. The New York Times does not want its content to be stolen or "remixed" and then "monetized by Silicon Valley to the tune of a billion dollars," Nisenholtz said.

The New York Times' audience data will also be more tightly controlled.

Nisenholtz cited Ongo as an example of an alternative platform where the consumer pays, but one which is created by the newspaper industry, on friendly terms, as Myers reported. The New York Times, The Washington Post Co and Gannett all invested in Ongo, which launched in January.

Other non-authorised services will scrape and cache content, he said, and it will be tough for Ongo to work if this pattern of reuse continues. He compared Ongo to Hulu, which aggregates television content but which is controlled by TV networks. Maybe the New York Times' approach will start a trend, he suggested.

The rest of the newspaper industry will be watching The New York Times' progress with its paywall with great interest. For those who want to charge online but don't want to fully restrict their online content to subscribers, as the Times of London has done, the NYT's approach could be the answer. Will it start a trend? And crucially, for the newspaper itself, will it make money?

See here for some early reactions to the paywall announcement.

Source: New York Times, Poynter (1), (2)