WHY PAID NEWS SITES WILL NOT WORK
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch admitted last week that his News Corporation expects to be charging for access to its newspaper websites by the end of the year.
My question to you is: do you expect to be paying for access to your news on the web within the next six months ?
While sites like The Wall Street Journal are making good money from online subscriptions you have to remember that content is niche. The moment one newspaper starts to enforce charges for its online readers will move elsewhere,along with advertising revenues.
What I think is inevitable is that any news published behind a pay wall is likely to be reposted pretty quickly, so publishers will need to increase their efforts on the copyright enforcement front.
Newspapers and magazines are facing tough times but my view is that introducing widespread payment for website news is not the way forward.
What do you think?
12 comments:
I think we'll start seeing a narrowing of available news. The best opportunities for change will be local news, then regional, where there is more of a niche effect. Specialized news, like finance, has always been limited, and will become more so. I'm beginning to see links to stories that have the first couple sentences, but then have a caveat, such as "To view the entire article, please sign in..." with a subscription link.
The obvious question is, will people accept paying for a subscription but still allow for those annoying ads. Internet new subscriptions have always been sold on the notion that ads go away when you pay for the page. But that was the early promise of cable, too.
You're going against the prevailing orthodoxy on this. There have been quite a few editorials in recent months suggesting some form of 'micro-payments' system, which has potential if enough consumers sign up for it.
Something has to change, because newspapers are currently offering all their print content online plus tons of extra multimedia content, all for free. Internet advertising is not sufficient, so subscriptions seem like the only option. Perhaps charging only for 'premium' content, in the same way as imdb.com?
I agree I am going against the tide on this, and I also agree newspapers (and magazines) must find a way to earn revenues from their online offerings.
I don't have the answer. Perhaps adopting something similar to the print 'qualified free' distribution model might work for niche content? Using an example of a media news site, if you can prove you work in that sector you would get a free subscription when you provide your personal details. Publishers can then use those details to further generate revenues.
Something has to happen .. and fast.
Like you, I do not have an answer, but I do know that current wisdom is that the majority of Internet users are averse to paying for content.
I have a food website with pretty solid content, none of this stuff about what I ate for lunch, and yet there appears to be no possibility of charging for that content.
Anecdotal evidence from other webmasters who have tried this points to an immediate loss of traffic in droves.
Yet, Pay-per-Click advertising only yields peanuts and you need huge traffic volumes to get decent revenues from CPM impressions at current rates.
Didn't the Economist sharply reduce the number of articles marked as premium content? I think now it is only the surveys that are tagged such, but I may be wrong here.
Some will pay for niche content, mainstream material will have to find a business model that allows free content.
You mention Wall Street Journal as having niche content, but it also has original content and to me this is the key in readers paying for access.
I'd love to think it would also force newspapers into providing original BETTER QUALITY content as I think this is what really lets them down.
With our publication we have been distributing it for free since launch but after being around a year we need to change that, and our latest web content has a subscription link after the first few paragraphs. Our subscription is only THB 1000 and we have good, original and interesting content that has been well-received to date. Will it work? Who knows, but drops in advertising revenues have forced publishers to look for readers to contribute to the product they receive.
I agree Gareth .. we (as publishers) must look for revenue anywhere we can. In terms of print I think readers are not adverse to paying 1,000 baht (in the case of your magazine) or 1,680 baht per year in mine for good, original content. As magazine publishers we must be essential to our readers in every way we can.
My worry is when that unique content is copied and posted everywhere for free. Copyright enforcement will be important to prevent substantial losses from that one paying subscriber who posts your unique story on their blog for the world to see for free.
And that's yet another costs ...
Hopefully, we will see increased specialisation in the news into smaller niche markets (e.g. specialised reporting on different business sectors) perhaps a web-based publicaiton manned by a small number of specialists who do it as a sideline with one paid full-time editor to pull it all together, and then charge for access.
There is so much unneeded redundancy in your typical paper based publication, redundancy that needs to be eliminated when you go to the web. For example, where are you going to read news about international vs. local economy? Probably, in New York Times for international and local economy in local regional newspaper.
This is an unresolved topic when I was in school a year ago. At the end of the class, we also reached the same conclusion that magazines and newspapers may have to go into the smaller niche markets in order to survive. (But, to be in the niche market, as a start-up business, when this is going to break even?)
It's quite discouraging at a time and some of us started to have a doubt in our career path.
Phisut .. I would truly not like to be a journalism student right now. There are so many talented and experienced writers looking for work that it's going to be extremely difficult for new graduates to get that all important first foot on the career ladder.
Even niche publications need to work hard, as I'm sure you will agree. As I commented earlier any publication needs to be essential to its readers by giving them something they cannot get elsewhere, either in print or online. That's difficult but not impossible.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/05/11/why-the-wsjs-micropayment-plan-wont-work/
This story mentions the same concerns about the copyright enforcement issue that I eluded to in a previous comment.
"Its premium plan will focus on readers interested in energy, commodities, wealth management and other niches."
Micro-payments considered for WSJ website, Financial Times, By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Kenneth Li in New York
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/afcc5024-3d97-11de-a85e-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1
"What I think is inevitable is that any news published behind a pay wall is likely to be reposted pretty quickly, so publishers will need to increase their efforts on the copyright enforcement front."
That would be quite a boon for academic writing teachers, since a big part of what they do is teach students to quote and cite and paraphrase sources and avoid plagiarism, in essence comply with copyright.
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