August 11, 2009 by James Oliver
As any media student learns early on, Australian news magnate, Rupert Murdoch has been one of the most the most fundamental influences on how we view and use information over the last 20 + years. His revolutionary, and often deeply unpopular, innovations have forced the newspaper and television industries to evolve, often in the face of fierce opposition, and it looks like he’s at it again, with a plan to charge for online news content.
Newspapers have been haemorrhaging money and staff for years now and, thus far, the standard response has been to make all your articles free online and sell advertising. Unfortunately this technique appears not to be working, with the vast majority of newspapers struggling to make enough money to fund themselves.
Murdoch’s argument is that as a result of this cost cutting, the quality of journalism is suffering.
“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting.” – Murdoch.
In an era where most newspapers have had to freeze recruitment of new reporters and even experienced journalists are having trouble finding work, it’s quite hard to argue with him. However, the question remains, are people ready to pay for news again?
The answer is probably, ‘not unless they have to.’ It probably is possible to make paid online news work, though it’s going to require all the outlets to be on the same page. If all papers started charging then there would be little choice other than to pay. It may just need someone to get the ball rolling… And who better?
Related posts:
- Murdoch threatening to remove NewsCorp Content from Google
- Microsoft to pay Murdoch to shun Google
- Record Traffic for Celebrity and Presidential News – Part 2
- Yahoo! announce purchase of Associated Content news service
- Record Traffic for Celebrity and Presidential News – Part 4
- Yahoo reveal list of top online news searches
