New York Times' pricing issue

John Gruber:

I just don’t get the pricing, and I find it hard to believe there are many people willing to pay $455/year for digital access to a newspaper, no matter how good the newspaper is.

NYT’s big secret is that such a pricing structure usually is only a marketing fuckup, nothing more.

The problem is not the price being too high (who are we to judge that?), but the whole product structure being too stupid. Their marketing team has no clue on market segments, customer behavior or product positioning.

Yet, what do you know: that’s America, it might even work!