News International's declining fortunes is leading Mr Murdoch to start charging for all online news content for all his titles . The Guardian has the story here.
Apart from going against the ethos of the internet i.e. make everything freely sharable and findable, I can't see how it's going to work. I just don't see people paying, say 5p, to access a story in The Sun Online, then paying 5p to access a story in the News of the World then 5p to access the Times. It's not so much the cost, although I imagine it will put off many people, it's the hassle of having to pay lots of different newspapers to read the stories - stories that you can probably read for free on other sites.
I know that paid-for news content works for the FT.com and WSJ - mainly because they offer valuable specialist content i.e. business information and insight. However, I can't imagine many people paying for stories about who the latest Big Brother contestant got drunk with [or maybe they will and I'm just showing my age].
What would make me pay Mr Murdoch to read his news online is some sort of iTunes for Newspapers. If I can sign in and get any stories I wanted and pay for them via a single account, then that would remove many of the barriers. Although, I reckon that iNews [I couldn't resist, sorry], would have to include news from all online newspapers, not just News International.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
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I think there are quite a few other possible financial models for newspapers to make money from their readers online, such as with the news about the Guardian and its plans for a readers club.
The more I think about it, the more taken I am with the idea of them behaving more like book publishers in the future - shifting the burden of content creation to authors, many of whom have non-financial motivations for creating content.
I like the idea of the readers club [thanks for that hadn't seen it]
Although I still think the main challenge for newspapers is to provide a simple way for people to buy stories from lots of different places. Maybe its because I'm familiar with iTunes that I keep coming back to that, but if you could almost create your own newspaper from stories from many newspapers, almost like a playlist, then purchase the news playlist/bespoke newspaper, then that would appeal. Imagine a newspaper with the gossip from NOTW, finance from the FT, sport from the Times and arts from the Guardian.:)
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