Google Traffic to Ungated NYTimes.com has Doubled, Report

The ungating of NYTimes.com in September has lead to a dramatic increase in traffic from Google search, according an interview with David Eun, Google's Vice President of Content Partnerships in next week's edition of The Deal. 

Eun tells tells the weekly that ungating at the Times and the Financial Times has greatly increased traffic from Google:

"We have some partners that have made very bold steps, such as The New York Times, which went from a pay model to a free model. After they went free, the traffic they got from us alone doubled. Their math says they make more money by offering content free to consumers, but stimulating demand and making it work with advertising. The Financial Times did the same thing, and at least early on in the process they experienced at least a 100% growth in traffic."

Unique visitors to the NYTimes.com was up to a record-breaking 20 million in January, according to Nielsen.  A Times spokeswoman declined to provide the traffic from Google, but stated, "traffic from Google to NYTimes.com has increased significantly since the end of TimesSelect last September."

I've republished my interview with NYTimes.com general manager Vivian Schiller about the growth of traffic to the site. It was originally published in November.

-- Andy Plesser

Disclosure:  The Deal is a client of Plesser Holland public relations.