The Times to charge for online content – Death of Newspapers?
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Lee
3 years ago -
14152
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It had to happen, online editions of newspapers had (and have) to start charging money, otherwise they will not be around in any capacity. If newspapers start going out of business how are we going to have useless England managers sacked? How else would we find out what is happening in the lives of Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and John Terry.
You have to applaud newspapers in many ways – for example, just look at how journalists outed former ministers recently. There is a sense of justice and prevail. Our national newspapers can galvanise us and influence us in a way the Internet still cannot.
I actually applaud Rupert Murdoch and News International for this move; quite simply something had/has to be done to preserve the newspaper industry.
Why should any of us expect to be able to read the content of a newspaper for free just because it happens to be online? After all you are hardly likely to stand in your local newsagent and read the whole newspaper without eyebrows being raised or something being said.
The Times Online – soon to be a subscription only service
Quality Journalism
Much as though I love the blogosphere, I am afraid it does not compensate for quality journalism and in my humble opinion the British newspaper industry does contain its fair share of quality journalists. Yes there are journalists who wind people up, but there are many respected commentators who should continue to be at the forefront of delivering opinion. Yes I could tap into a blog, but do you know what, it is just not the same.
Give me News Now!
Much has been made of news aggregators such as NewsNow and even Google News. The majority of leading newspapers now prevent themselves from having their content aggregated by these services. If you work in the digital world you would have to of been on the moon to not know that Google and Rupert Murdoch have been embroiled in a spat about ‘taking’ content for some time. Again this is an aspect that I do not disagree with, but then if only a headline and snippet is being displayed surely it would be in the interests of a newspaper to draw visitors in and then look to have them subscribe to their unique content.
Online Newspapers are Eco Friendly
Newspapers themselves are a dying breed. I have long wondered why I am inundated with ‘free’ newspapers through my door each week. These free publications serve no purpose and are littered with an antiquated form of advertising that we know to be ineffectual. So what is the purpose of wasting trees and other natural resources in creating newspapers when I can get the same content delivered to my iPhone or soon to be iPad? There is none.
Rich Link Sources
The other interesting aspect to this is links. We all know links from newspaper sites such as The Times, The Telegraph The Daily Mirror and the like will carry some considerable weight. It remains to be seen whether all content will be locked away from un-subscribed eyes. It is though completely feasible that links from newspapers will soon be null and void, after all if Google cannot access the content where a link to your site may exist then your inbound power will be lost.
Interesting Times
The whole newspaper industry is going to be watching this test case very closely. It is expected News Internationals online publications will lose thousands of readers, especially as there are plenty of other sources that are offering similar information and content. I don’t agree with that. If you buy The Times in the physical world, why would you not want to buy The Times in the virtual world?
In fact if you do, you’ll be doing more than just keeping a journalist in a job, you’ll be taking an active part on saving the planet. Now surely that is something the whole of the newspaper industry and those who buy newspapers would want to be a part of.
9 comments so far to - The Times to charge for online content – Death of Newspapers? -
Good summary…
This is an intereting development in what is already a much talked about area. There was a lot of heated debate on the subject at last month’s BrightonSEO event – we summarised some of the arguments here http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/death-future-journalism/
The way newspapers sell quality journalism has to change as the old model isn’t working any more. We’ll be watching what happens when the Times paywall comes in with great interest.
Pay-walls could loose vast ads revenue streams.
As most revenues in the media come from advertisements it is logical to say that restricting access will only hit ads revenue streams so As I said before ‘Cut Your Nose Off to Spite Your Face’ please do. So prepare to have your investors ads money disappear Murdoch, for who will advertise in a Newspaper when it has a very limited audience?
Russian entrepreneurs are moving into UK based main stream media, so maybe goodbye Murdoch eventually?
It is noteworthy that since the The Evening Standard was bought by a Russian business man they can now afford to give the paper away FREE in the Streets of London, now a Russian entrepreneurs has bought The Independent.
As I said before ‘Cut Your Nose Off to Spite Your Face’ please do.
Signed Carl Barron Chairman of agpcuk
http://carl-agpcuk.livejournal.com/
I think the whole way in which humanity accesses, uses and shares information is in the process of transformation. In a connected world paper and ink are a very cumbersome and ancient medium.
A fool and his money are soon parted – could be Murdoch or could be you, if he succeeds.
When you pay for content on the internet it usually means you give up your real life identity. That combined with what you think (i.e. read) is an extremely valuable commodity.
It is also information that can be used against you should it come to that. It infringes on your right to privacy and to hold your own thoughts. It is why authorities shouldn’t know what you check out of the library.
The internet offers tremendous cost savings over print. Murdoch is an extremely greedy man and too stupid to know how to successfully associate content with advertisement or advertisement with content. Or to successfully make the argument that ads should be paid for even if they aren’t clicked on.
The identity driven information Murdoch could glean from you is even greater than anything Google ever imagined.
@Rod: “Murdoch is an extremely greedy man and too stupid” – I cannot agree with your comment here Rod. Rupert Murdoch is by no means stupid, he is one of the most successful businessmen ever. Yes the landscape is changing for traditional printed media. Personally I am not worried about what data they may collect, because the likes of Sainsbury’s Tesco, Google and Microsoft already have a stack of data about me and many others, so adding one more to the list is hardly an evil that I am unfamiliar with.
I have to disagree with you on every level.
Newspapers make very little money through sales alone. It’s all about advertising revenue, and obviously the more people you reach, the more viable your ‘product’ is for advertising.
I’m certain that I’m not alone in saying that’ll I’ll no longer use the Times’ website, especially as I can read most of the same stories on the Guardian (which is the most read newspaper on the net, yet they aren’t interested in charging for online content) or the Telegraph.
Murdoch is also campaigning on all his British media outlets for cuts to the BBC because they offer a threat to his corporations. Why would you buy the Times when you can read the info on the BBC? It just makes no sense, and Murdoch knows this.However, if the BBC was smaller he’d have more room to manoeuvre in his venture to charge for ALL content. Instead, he should be making a case to his current advertisers for them to invest more money as they reach X million people daily on his site. That is where the money to save the newspaper industry will come from, not by charging your average Joe for reading a story about Manchester United.
The more people stop using the site because they have to pay for it, the less advertising the Times receive. The less advertising they receive, the higher the subscription charge gets to make up for it, and the cycle continues.
It’s all about advertising, and Murdoch has missed this point out of sheer greed. Unfortunately for him, it’ll also see a reduced number ‘hits’ for his flagship newspaper’s website, and could even bring the Times to its knees.
Wow, desperate times! no pun intended.
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