• Bloomberg, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:45 AM

The New York Times is likely to begin charging users to read its news on mobile phones before it charges them to read content on its Web sites. Martin Nisenholtz, head of digital operations, says the publisher is considering paid subscriptions on the iPhone and similar devices because they allow for less advertising than the Web. "It's not going to be tenable for publishers to offer their content for free in the mobile platform forever," he says.

Currently, The New York Times is available without charge on the iPhone, but the publisher charges a fee for its content on Amazon's Kindle. Nisenholtz says he expects the newspaper will eventually be available on multiple e-readers.

On the Web, the paper has been limiting the number of ads on its sites in favor of larger, more interactive promos. "We have more rate leverage" with advertisers because they aren't competing for space with other marketers, says Nisenholtz. The publisher is also studying ways to eventually charge for some of its news content online.

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