Department of Free and PLM

What do you think about the power of FREE? The following article in UK Guardian made me think again about the power of free influence. Times loses almost 90% of online readership. Take a look on the following quote:

The Times has lost almost 90% of its online readership compared to February since making registration mandatory in June, calculations by the Guardian show.

Unregistered users of thetimes.co.uk are now “bounced” to a Times+ membership page where they have to register if they want to view Times content. Data from the web metrics company Experian Hitwise shows that only 25.6% of such users sign up and proceed to a Times web page; based on custom categories (created at the Guardian) that have been used to track the performance of major UK press titles online, visits to the Times site have fallen to 4.16% of UK quality press online traffic, compared with 15% before it made registration compulsory on 15 June.

In my view, this is an important lesson for everybody who is playing FREE game. FREE is very powerful and dangerous at the same time. PLM is certainly not free. However, to understand the power is important. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Tagged as: Free, Marketing, Power