Monday 10 August 2009

Charging for Readership?

This is Murdoch's latest wheeze. Like many such attempts before, it is not going to get very far. People can simply read what they want to elsewhere. The advertising model is set in.

Murdoch is perhaps looking at the success of SKY compared to ITV, where the pay broadcaster is strong and successful and the free to air company struggling. There maybe some validity to this, but the content is still king; for Sky it is the football and movies.

In the world of the written word there is much less discrimination in terms of content. After all most, journalists seem to be sons and daughters of previous ones, it is not as if they got their jobs on merit.

Perhaps key information, such as the Financial Times, which helps people to make money, can charge, but most newspapers cannot as their AP newswire stories with a bit of comment on top is just too easy to copy.

So in all, Murdoch will fail. However, in the spirit of capitalism - how much would YOU pay to read this blog if the adverts were removed?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't pay.

Content elsewhere.

Opinion may vary, but only slightly.

Restrictions on FT content can be got round.

Model won't work.

Anonymous said...

Don't mean to offend. :-)

All contributors here are good, - construct good story lines.

Houdini said...

Nothing, I'm afraid, the same as I wouldn't pay for any blog or site content anywhere.

I think Murdoch will fail too.

Ann-Marie said...

Yey magazines, with similar content sell in droves. Chat,Hello,GQ..

A weekly blog, with a weeks content AND exclusives might work.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Murdoch will work on the same model that got The Sun (page 3) selling when he bought it, mind that might/will not work because there are other places to go on the web for free, if you are that way inclined.

roym said...

a few more decent share tips and i might pay! ;-)

CityUnslicker said...

point proved. Murdoch will fail.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Nick, this is my take...!

not an economist said...

Re the photo: When exactly did Mr Murdoch start partaking in gurning competitions???

Yokel said...

When I go to the pub, I pay for the beer, not for good conversation. Now that they are busy shutting down all the pubs with their twin attacks on smoking and drinking, blogs are the next best place for good coversation that rights the wrongs all around us.

How much a pint are you charging for beer? Delivered?

Judy said...

If he links stuff from porn empire (he needs one/does he have one?) all you guys will happily pay.

:)

Old BE said...

This is my favourite web site with "Capitalists@Work" in the title, so that may be a market leader. I might pay more if you offered financial advice ;-)

Anonymous said...

Oh, do try to keep up! Scrobs has had this disccusion running on his blog for days.

ScotsToryB said...

Michty me! You have adverts?

It's been so long since I banned adverts from sites, that I no longer remember which ones I've blocked.

Remind me again, why did I stop buying newspapers? Because they are crap.

STB.

Ed said...

Just to be contrarian, I think that by A) upping their game B) evolving new relationships with newswires and their own networks C) strangulating other content d) offering ancilary video content together with text content e) offering in depth services on calculated scales plus free online publications, library accesses, serialisations online etc,

they can build up a saleable, defendable package. However, it's a long-term project which will only slowly begin to pay off. A strategy of interconnected content, technological protection and strangulation of free media might actually work on a five year plan imvho.

Ed said...

Oh and I would not pay for CaW as it stands ;-), but I am thinking of subscription to Pajamas Media.

Merceron Peregrine Smythe said...

Big feature on this in this month's Wired. Guess you got the lead from there.

WSJ beats the pants off the FT and is possibly worth paying for their market related news. Though google are also getting pretty good.

I'm not sure the model works.

CityUnslicker said...

Ed a wrote a post a while ago saying it is quite possible for the media to dominate the blogd and wipe the floor with them.

Whether subscription is the model I doubt far more.