Re:Murdoch signals end of free news
by bjelkeman-again on Thursday August 06, 2009 @10:30AM
(#745510)
What news do I pay for? I subscribe to the Economist, New Scientist and The Guardian Weekly. All are weekly niche magazines (one in a newspaper format) and two of them give access to all their archives when you have a paper subscription (Economist and New Scientist).
What news will I pay for in the future? If every newspaper website became a walled garden (unlikely), then I would probably go to the BBC for the headlines and make do with the weekly news I get from what I mentioned earlier, as well as specialist "news" sites, such as Hacker News, Slashdot etc. There is actually very little news which I am interested in "as it happens". Most of it I want with an accompanying analysis, which is why I subscribe to the weeklies.
What do I think the future will look like? Lots of specialist outfits like Hacker News, Arstechnica, profitable walled guardens like the Economist and New Scientist and free public sites: BBC, NPR and a ton of "free" (advertising powered) sites with marginal to no journalist staff. Maybe. There is most likely a business model or two in there somewhere which we haven't figured out yet which will surprise us all.
Paying for anything which Murdoch supplies? Hardly likely (unless he owns one of the above :). I didn't do before and I am not doing it now. Of course, I am not Joe Public.
What news will I pay for in the future? If every newspaper website became a walled garden (unlikely), then I would probably go to the BBC for the headlines and make do with the weekly news I get from what I mentioned earlier, as well as specialist "news" sites, such as Hacker News, Slashdot etc. There is actually very little news which I am interested in "as it happens". Most of it I want with an accompanying analysis, which is why I subscribe to the weeklies.
What do I think the future will look like? Lots of specialist outfits like Hacker News, Arstechnica, profitable walled guardens like the Economist and New Scientist and free public sites: BBC, NPR and a ton of "free" (advertising powered) sites with marginal to no journalist staff. Maybe. There is most likely a business model or two in there somewhere which we haven't figured out yet which will surprise us all.
Paying for anything which Murdoch supplies? Hardly likely (unless he owns one of the above :). I didn't do before and I am not doing it now. Of course, I am not Joe Public.