Arthur Sulzberger Jr.: Times to Use Drug Dealer Model for Paywall

Internet Week New York opens with media executives toting plenty of quotes

It’s Internet Week in New York, where Silicon Alley and Silicon Valley converge with “traditional” media to talk all things Web, drink, and talk some more. It’s also where media executives crowd panels, armed with plenty of sound bytes.

Here is a selection — culled from various sources and streams — from Internet Week and elsewhere:

>> “AOL is a start-around” – David Eun, AOL Media and Studios, on  “acting like a start-up” while in a turnaround

>> “If you become obsessed with only traffic, then you lose your DNA” – Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post

>> “The lowest common denominator isn’t translating into traffic. Quality is good for business” – Dan Abrams, Mediaite

>> “Three hits are free, then we’ll make you pay” – Arthur Sulzberger Jr., New York Times Company, on the Times’ “drug dealer model” paywall

>> "The easiest way [to get traffic] is to do lowest common denominator traffic, and we do some of them" — Huffington

>> “Cracked didn’t have ‘week’ in the title, so we bought it” — Joanne Bradford, Demand Media

>> "If we weren’t getting arrows we wouldn’t be doing our job" – Tim Armstrong, AOL, on critics

>> "At the New York Times it’s the hour of dour most of the day, so they’re a little leaden-footed in the way they dance around the boxing ring” – Robert Thomson, Wall Street Journal

>> “The first thing you have to ask yourself is, ‘Why would anybody watch this?’ If you can’t come up with a good reason, don’t make [the video]" – Ricky Van Veen, College Humor

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