Speaking of unlikely budgets
Via John Gruber, Philip Greenspun asks how on earth the New York Times spent $40 million on its new paywall:
… my biggest question right now is how the NY Times spent a reported $40-50 million writing the code (Bloomberg; other sources are consistent). Google was financed with $25 million. The New York Times already had a credit card processing system for selling home delivery. It already had a database management system for keeping track of Web site registrants. What did they spend the $40-50 million on?
And what do you get for $40m besides a wall that can be trivially circumvented? I just got an emailed an “exclusive offer — only for registered NYTimes.com readers” to subcribe at a reduced rate. As you can see, they’re targeting iPhone and iPad users:
Unfortunately, notwithstanding the large pictures of mobile devices, the small print at the bottom tells you that you can’t subscribe via the browser on your phone or tablet. I guess they don’t want to make it too easy to sign up.