Free News Going the Way of the Do Do Bird

And I expect that our entire web experience is about to go through a major change as more and more start charging for content.


Rupert Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summerTimes and Sun readers to pay as loss-making Murdoch declares end to free-for-all
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/rupert-murdoch-website-charges

Why The Newspaper Paywall Will Fail
from the it-prevents-real-growth dept
It's no secret that we think newspaper paywalls are a massive disaster in waiting. The number of folks actually willing to pay is a lot smaller than many in the newspaper industry think, and the papers' failure to recognize that they need to add more value rather than take it away by locking up their content pretty much guarantees the widespread failure of the plan. But Kevin Kelleher, over at The Big Money has a nice article that sums up exactly why paywalls will fail:

For the sake of argument, let's say that news sites are routinely charging readers in five years. By then, the economy may be substantially healthier than now, and advertisers will be looking for sites with large, loyal readerships to sell their ads on. But that won't include newspapers. They'll be catering to that 10 percent of their online audience willing to subscribe. The rest of the Web will have long stopped linking to--and talking about--their stories. The dollars will flow right past the newspapers' pay walls. And then they'll really be sorry.
And that's assuming 10% are willing to pay, which strikes me as high already. One other quibble with Kelleher's piece: he suggests that newspapers stood a better chance if they started trying to charge in 1994, ignoring the fact that many newspapers have tried to put up paywalls in the intervening years, and nearly all of them (with a very small number of high profile exceptions) have discovered that they don't work. Whether it's 1994, 2009 or 2024, it doesn't really matter. The future of online news is not behind a paywall.


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090707/0207585464.shtml

Quality newspapers such as the NY Times, Washington Post etc. Have always charged for their articles and post papers require some kind of subscription code to view the archives. People wanting those articles, such as researchers, are willing to pay for that access.

The question now become will substandard news organizations be able to survive as a pay per view. The answer is yes. They have survived giving it away for free, certainly they aren't going to fall because now they charge.

There will still be papers, magazines, and blogs that will operate for free.

I have not given up on this completely.
What it will take to bring activity here is for someone to provide a "free" bit of news that is not being discussed elsewhere. And it should be relevant enough to draw attention. Someone needs to write and post some news here.

Paul Allaire wrote:I have not given up on this completely.
What it will take to bring activity here is for someone to provide a "free" bit of news that is not being discussed elsewhere. And it should be relevant enough to draw attention. Someone needs to write and post some news here.

I do that already on my own community forum.