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Well I can confirm that their decision to erect a paywall directly led to me no longer visiting their site. It will be interesting to see whether the paywall w
by motters 16y ago
Well I can confirm that their decision to erect a paywall directly led to me no longer visiting their site.
It will be interesting to see whether the paywall works for them, but these things were tried and failed in the past so I expect the result to be the same.
My feeling on this is that there are better ways to monetize journalism. One way to do this would be to have a two tier system were readers can read the news as usual, but if you want to get access to the source materials and editorial decisions used to assemble the stories, or to be able to see the journalists at work (for example validating source material), you might pay a subscription. That way people who wanted a deeper understanding could pay to get that.
- axod 16y ago"if you want to get access to the source materials and editorial decisions used to assemble the stories, or to be able to see the journalists at work (for example validating source material), you might pay a subscription. That way people who wanted a deeper understanding could pay to get that." That seems like a niche inside a niche inside a miniscule market... surely
- motters 16y agoWell, I'm sure there are plenty of newsophiles out there, otherwise there would be no market for 24 hour news TV channels.
- axod 16y agoCompletely different market (IMHO). People watch 24 hour news not because they're newsophiles, but because there's some big story breaking, or they want the news now, not at the next regular bulletin. I'd bet money that the number of people who watch 24 hour news, who would pay for the services you suggest, is very small indeed.
- marknutter 16y agoMaybe we just need less publications.
- motters 16y agoPossibly the Times removing itself from view as far as most internet users are concerned might be a good thing for rival sites. It means that there are slightly fewer advertising slots on news sites, which could increase their value. Certainly in my case other news sites are getting higher traffic because of the Times paywall.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- lwhi 16y agoMaybe Murdoch will give away access as an extra included service for subscribers of his other media services? For example - Sky TV subscribers could be given 'free' access, as could Sky broadband customers. By increasing the customer base in this way, he'd gain a larger base of initial users. He's trying to change the habits and behaviours of a large volume of people. It's probably far easier to do this if the initial wave of people don't have to think about purchasing it in the first place, and in the case of current customers - the costs could be recouped via their standard service's subscription.