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Subscriptions is the end-result. To get there you need many things: brand, reputation, good crawling, incoming links from authoritative sites. All of these are

by vladd 8y ago

Subscriptions is the end-result. To get there you need many things: brand, reputation, good crawling, incoming links from authoritative sites. All of these are predicated on the idea of a global Internet. If webmasters in Europe stop linking to you, Americans traveling in EU lose your trust, and EU-hosted search engine crawlers figure you don't exist, then you start to have some problems. A good businessman is able to change its assumptions when the world around him changes. In 1980, it might have made sense to limit your newspaper audience in the area where you lived. In 2010+, due to the Internet, the main cost of a newspaper consists in the work performed by the writer to produce the actual content. When the world around you gives you basically free infrastructure to send those bytes to another continent against a one-time investment of assessing and fixing your site for compliance, you just don't say no.

scarejunba 8y ago
Assuming what you say is true, would one expect prominent newspaper websites that are GDPR-compliant and accessible from the EU to be doing better financially than prominent newspaper websites that aren't? Is that the case?
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  That's a good question. But is that data even available, especially in the format that would allow to tease out how much each aspect of the enterprise contributed to the financial situation? As an addition to the GP's argument, consider that these days, news stories are meant to be linked to on social media. People have friends and audiences in many places in the world. If someone with parts of their audience in Europe wants to share a news story, will they choose an article on GDPR-blocking site, or on a GDPR-compliant one?
- Aeolun 8y ago
  Not necessarily, since complying would likely yield only like 2% (number made up) extra returns on whatever their revenue already is. The most important factor is still if your newspaper is any good.

by vladd 8y ago

scarejunba 8y ago

Assuming what you say is true, would one expect prominent newspaper websites that are GDPR-compliant and accessible from the EU to be doing better financially than prominent newspaper websites that aren't? Is that the case?

TeMPOraL 8y ago
That's a good question. But is that data even available, especially in the format that would allow to tease out how much each aspect of the enterprise contributed to the financial situation? As an addition to the GP's argument, consider that these days, news stories are meant to be linked to on social media. People have friends and audiences in many places in the world. If someone with parts of their audience in Europe wants to share a news story, will they choose an article on GDPR-blocking site, or on a GDPR-compliant one?
Aeolun 8y ago
Not necessarily, since complying would likely yield only like 2% (number made up) extra returns on whatever their revenue already is. The most important factor is still if your newspaper is any good.