The New York Times has launched digital subscriptions that limit the free access that readers are used to. But with the growing levels of smartphone and tablet adoption, will users embrace the paid model?

The company introduced the new subscription plan last week for the Canadian market and will roll out to the United States and globally on March 28. The plan will allow for free access to a set amount of content across the company?s digital platforms, including mobile phones and tablets.

?The New York Times is launching a digital subscriptions model, which will appear globally on March 28,? said Kristin M. Mason, manager of communications at The New York Times Co., New York.

?For mobile and tablet applications, the Top News section will be free; access to all other sections of the app will require a subscription,? she said. ?This model will provide the flexibility to keep an appropriate ratio of free to paid content while keeping The Times?s journalism accessible to the open Web.?

The New York Times Co. is a media company with 2010 revenues of $2.4 billion. This includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers and more than 50 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com.

Mobile model
The New York Times is using Apple?s new subscription terms.

Readers will have access to 20 articles per month on the publication's Web site.

After readers surpass 20 free articles per month, they will be asked to purchase a subscription for unlimited access.

For non-home delivery subscribers, a basic package that includes NYTimes.com and the smartphone app will start at $15 every four weeks.

Unlimited access to the company?s Web site and its tablet application costs $20 every four weeks.

In addition, all digital access which includes unlimited access to NYTimes.com and the company?s tablet and smartphone applications will cost readers $35 every four weeks.

?This plan allows us to develop a new source of revenue that will strengthen our ability to continue our journalistic mission and digital innovation, while enabling us to maintain the large audience that supports our robust advertising business,? Ms. Mason said. ?We announced the details of our digital subscription plan with a letter from the publisher of The Times and a press release.

?As we get closer to launch, we will be communicating with our users through emails and ads on the site, explaining the flexibility of the plan and encouraging users to subscribe,? she said.

NYT subscribers
All New York Times home delivery newspaper subscribers can get free, unlimited access to the publication?s Web site and its mobile applications.

Readers who come to the articles via links from search, blogs and social media will be able to access those individual articles even if they have reached their reading limit.

According to the publication, for some search engines, users will have a daily limit of free links to Times articles.

Additionally, the homepage at NYTimes.com and all section fronts will remain free to browse for all users at all times.

Using Apple?s new subscription terms, readers can make one-click purchases in the App Store by June 30 to ensure access to the applications.

Users who subscribe to print editions of the International Herald Tribune, the global edition of The New York Times, will receive free, unlimited access to NYTimes.com

?We conducted several rounds of in-depth research as we developed the plan,? Ms. Mason said. ?The package options are based on extensive surveys of our users, which indicated that they want access from multiple platforms, and that our heaviest users have smartphones and tablets. 

?The New York Times is a multiplatform media organization, and mobile is an important component of our readers? experience,? she said. ?In February alone, New York Times mobile Web applications generated almost 111 million page views.?

Final Take