Are you willing to pay for access to online news?

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Looks like the writing's on the wall. If Murdoch does it, many (most?) other online news outlets will surely follow.

So, when this happens (& it'll be sooner rather than later, by the sounds of it) how will this impact on you?

Are you willing to pay for your online news? (Murdoch & other news sites)

If so, which news site/s are you willing/likely to subscribe to?

If not, then what do you think your main sources of news content is likely to be?:

Quote:

NEWS Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has given his strongest indication yet that the company's newspapers will charge for their online content within a year.

Mr Murdoch said during the announcement of News Corp’s full-year earnings that newspapers could no longer afford to simply give away information on the Internet.
“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting," he said.

Mr Murdoch added that that if News Corp were successful with plans to charge for online journalism, “we will be followed by other media," adding that in terms of timing, News Corp was “thinking in terms of this fiscal year”.

He noted that the success of The Wall Street Journal's online subscription offering has convinced him that consumers will pay for news online that differentiates itself from the mass of information available free on the web.

While Mr Murdoch has indicated before that News Corp would look to charge consumers for online access to news content, his comments today suggested a broad attempt to charge for online news across the company's many media outlets.

Mr Murdoch said News Corp was working with hardware and software developers, as well as fellow publishers, to find the most effective way to charge consumers online for news content.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25891314-36418,00.html

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@msolga,

I doubt it will fly. Yahoo and several others are too competive to go along, in my opinion. Wall Street Journal gets away with it because they have a niche not well filled by other sources. Anyway, online access is usually bundled with a subscription to the print version.

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@msolga,

I was thinking about this, after Rupert's announcement:

I'd be extremely unhappy not to have access to the range of news sites I enjoy now.The NYT, the Guardian, The Jakarta Post, Al Jazeera, etc, etc, etc ... Actually, the idea of not being able to access news so widely, to compare the analysis of the same issues by different sources, is downright depressing. Sad

Probably (after subscriptions are introduced) a lot of my news information would gained through the (Oz government sponsored & funded) ABC. Very reputable news source & we're already paying for it via our taxes ... so Australians wouldn't be expected to pay again to subscribe, surely? I use the ABC a lot already.

I have a newspaper delivered to my home each morning. (The AGE - based in Melbourne, Oz). If the Age decided to charge, then I'd expect/hope that regular subscribers would be charged considerably less (than non-subscribers) for the online service.

During the day I listen to radio a lot (at home, in the car). Tuned just about always to my local ABC radio. That's where I get most of my news updates from. So I doubt that bit will change.

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@roger,

Quote:

I doubt it will fly. Yahoo and several others are too competive to go along, in my opinion. Wall Street Journal gets away with it because they have a niche not well filled by other sources. Anyway, online access is usually bundled with a subscription to the print version.

I hope you're right, Roger. But Rupert Murdoch controls a lot of the media. And he sounds as though he means it!

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Very depressingly worded advertisement at the bottom of this page, last time I looked: JOURNALISM IS DEAD.

That's what worries me about Murdoch's plans. For a time we have enjoyed unlimited access to global news, seen from any variety of different perspectives. It has been a fantastic, but we have taken it for granted, assuming things will always be this way. I would really hate to lose this.

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@msolga,

This was in mid March, still kinda sad though. In answer to your question, no I won't pay for news on line. I don't even read the newspaper we do get. I watch headline news on tv.

"The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the 146-year old newspaper, Seattle's oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.
The company, however, said it would maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product."

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/403793_piclosure17.html

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@roger,

I'm interested, Roger:

If the worst does happen (& I don't share your confidence it won't) ...

What would your response be:

Are you willing to pay for your online news? (Murdoch & other news sites)

If so, which news site/s are you willing/likely to subscribe to?

If not, then what do you think your main sources of news content is likely to be?:

1 Reply

@TTH,

Quote:

"The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the 146-year old newspaper, Seattle's oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.
The company, however, said it would maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product."

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/403793_piclosure17.html

Interesting, TTH. And unfortunate for the folk living in Seattle, say nothing of the journalists working for the paper.

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@msolga,

I'm not sure what I would do. At present I subscribe to the WSJ. It was a $99.00 promotional offer and included the online version. Mostly, I don't use the online version, anyway. I don't really enjoy reading lengthy blocks of text online. They are now offering to renew at $249.0 per year. I'm going to have to pass that one up, but would accept something on the order of $150.00.

Your question, though, is would I pay for online news. Probably not.

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@msolga,

I hope you're right, Roger. But Rupert Murdoch controls a lot of the media. And he sounds as though he means it!
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One thing the gentleman does not control is my check book or my credit cards and I will not paid for online news end of subject.

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@BillRM,

Good point. I could consider it, but only if print media were to disappear. Note that I do not own a television.

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@BillRM,

Quote:

One thing the gentleman does not control is my check book or my credit cards and I will not paid for online news end of subject.

So what sources will you use for your news, should most online news require payment in the future, Bill? How would this differ to your current news sources?

1 Reply

@msolga,

msolga wrote:

He noted that the success of The Wall Street Journal's online subscription offering has convinced him that consumers will pay for news online that differentiates itself from the mass of information available free on the web.

I would be willing to (and eventually expect to) pay for quality news reporting. I am not willing to pay for the entertainment based "candy" news which currently dominates most media outlets.

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I would also point out that the pricing structure for online news will have to match the online world. The key to online sales is not to take a lot from a few, but to take a little from many. Apple's iTunes proved this with 99cent songs and Apps.

If a news source charges 99cents/month for a subscription and provides quality news, many people will sign on (I predict). 12Million Internet subscribers would be $12Million/month and with no publishing costs (no paper, no trucks to deliver it, no staff to make is, etc). The cost of hosting the web site is substantially lower than paper production which means that a bulk of the profits can be used on reporting and reporters (where it should be).

Once the paradigm is established, natural market forces will cause competing services (pay for subscription) to spring up and we will be back to multiple sources for quality news at a reasonable monthly cost.

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other than the CBC and the BBC, the only other online news source i regularly check is CNN

like msolga and the ABC, my taxes support the CBC, so i doubt they'd move to a subscriber based news service

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@msolga,

So what sources will you use for your news, should most online news require payment in the future, Bill? How would this differ to your current news sources?
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Well there will always be news sources that are free online.

NPR website come to mind and the BBC website come to mind and more then likely most of the cable news channel and network news channels websites sites will remain free.

The newspapers news sources website and print had already had gone downhill with them saving money by cutting their news staff and reducing the news they do cover that they are less and less of my total news sources in any case.,.

Google news and other news search engines will always had enough free sources of news to draw on.

Sorry I am not paying for news online.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

interesting you say NPR and BBC, they could however be blocked from being accessed by foreign users, some BBC podcasts are available only in the uk because of copyright problems, the servers know where you're ISP originates, they could easily block the site

national agencies like the BBC, CBC, ABC, NPR, TVO, that are funded by taxes or subscribers could certainly ask non nationals to pay a fee to access

1 Reply

@djjd62,

interesting you say NPR and BBC, they could however be blocked from being accessed by foreign users, some BBC podcasts are available only in the uk because of copyright problems, the servers know where you're ISP originates, they could easily block the site
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You can not block news in that manner you can set the Tor network to show you are coming from any area of the world.

I had done so already to get around gambling block websites and it work just fine.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

not everybody is going to do that or have the knowledge, most people know little of how the internet really works

most people have only basic knowledge of what their computer is capable on or offline

1 Reply

@djjd62,

not everybody is going to do that or have the knowledge, most people know little of how the internet really works
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If news blocking by country become a common problem I am sure the knowledge of how to deal with such blocking will become known to the bulk of the internet users in very short order.

1 Reply

Are you willing to pay for access to online news?

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