Time Raises The ‘Hot News’ Wall

As a first strategic step away from free online content, Time is taking the recent news stories off its website, leaving only summaries:

Time Moves to Limit Free Content Online

Time has decided to dive headfirst into an issue that has bedeviled many a news organization before it: how to cure online readers of their addiction to free content.

But Time’s approach is more a process of weaning readers than forcing them to quit cold turkey. Starting this week, it replaced most of the content that appeared in its current issue with abridged articles and summaries online. The move is meant to drive readers to newsstands and Time’s iPad applications, where the magazine costs $4.99.

Richard Stengel, the managing editor, says Time plans to experiment and will continuously adjust what it decides to keep off its Web site.

“I think we’ll see what works and doesn’t work,” Mr. Stengel said in an interview by phone. “We’ll adapt and change. We’re in the hunt like everyone else to figure this out.”

By pulling its print content off its Web site, Time is taking a step that other American newsweeklies have so far avoided. Whether the move is enough to push more readers into paying for Time content is unclear.

The risk of becoming irrelevant.