THE NATION INTRODUCES PAYWALL
The Nation has introduced "The Nation Exclusive", a paywall-protected section of its free-to-access website that promises, according to publisher, to deliver "exclusive news, in-depth analysis, tips for investors, premium lifestyle articles, exclusive video, exclusive business tips, best offer for your lifestyle, privilege for high-class travelers and audio analyses". (sic)
The premium content service will cost US$3.99 per month/US$19.99 for six months/US$34.99 for 12-months for readers who are not subscribers to either the print or iPhone editions. The Bangkok Bugle understands The Nation has been looking at introducing a pay-to-view section for at least six months, as is evident from the August 17th "last update" tag on the subscription registration page.
The question has to be just what kind of "exclusive" content do they intend to provide? Last week they had an "exclusive" interview with the top executive of a leading Thai company. That same executive gave similar "exclusive" interviews to at least half a dozen other publications on the same day. Not really exclusive, is it? To be honest there's very little news in Thailand that is truly exclusive to one publication.
I fully understand the problems facing traditional media. The thing is that The Nation has introduced and subsequently withdrawn so many projects in the past few years (Daily Xpress, focus on being a business newspaper, international edition for hotels, a premium paper cover, partnering with Wall Street Journal Asia for subscriptions, etc) and readers can only take so much. I predict this latest venture will join the growing list of unsuccessful initiatives.
3 comments:
One concept The Nation has not bothered to explore to boost their lagging readership is decent, neutral and interesting reporting.
Although I still open up their website every day and scan their headlines I seldom bother to read their content. It's so predictable and one sided and I'm sure not about to pay $3.99 US for the privilege when 39Baht would be more in line with the content.
I assume that the Nation has not done any "in-depth analysis" to figure out whether anyone would actually subscribe to their premium content. Just like the BK Post they are fond of making up numbers instead of taking a few minutes to check the facts, as in the following report, made yesterday (courtesy of Thai Crisis):
"New company registrations increased last month by 40.5 per cent year on year to 4,644 firms, the highest figure in almost a century, thanks to the government’s stimulus measures and clearer signs of an economic recovery.
Moreover, the number of companies shutting down operations dropped by 5.35 per cent to just 1,238 firms, the lowest in nine years."
Both claims turn out to be completely incorrect. Perhaps their premium content contains the factual version?
Leosia .. you've made a good point about the lack of verification and fact-checking prior to publication.
Hardly any writers question information that is presented to them, or even do basic mathematical checks to make sure it all adds up.
More serious incidents occur when media repeats allegations first printed in other titles. When those first allegations turn out to be false and, perhaps, malicious the second publisher is just as guilty as the first. I can only see that happening more and more with content appearing in so many places and the pressure to be first with the news.
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