The online wallets are being forced open
July 13th, 2009, 11:22 am · 4 Comments · posted by Robert
Our sister paper in Harlingen, Texas is going to be the first paper in Freedom Communications to charge non-subscribers for Web site access.
This is different than subscribing to an e-Edition, which is a digital recreation of a print newspaper. This is an out-and-out pay window for the Web site itself.
I have heard nothing about anything similar happening here. But I’m not privy to the business workings, either.
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Robert,
As publisher of the A-D, I can tell you that we are keeping an eye on newspaper web sites, Freedom-owned and otherwise, to discover best practices on the web and watch for emerging, successful revenue models. Currently, The A-D has no plans to charge for access to its web site.
Nonetheless, I have openly and publicly stated that paying for original news reporting and content is a fair and necessary business model. Many web users don’t realize that much of the news they read online for free, originated from newspapers. We pay our reporters to investigate and write stories that keep people informed in their communities. Reporters have to eat, pay rent and buy clothes just like the rest of us.
There are plenty of popular web sites and search engines that “scrape” newspaper web sites from across the country and merely aggregate news stories daily on their web sites and sell advertising to profit from it. They don’t hire news reporters, they steal stories written by others. Unfortunately, that’s currently an acceptable business practice on the web. Most newspapers want to change that. I don’t believe that most web content needs be paid for, especially given the lack of quality and reliability of a lot of the information being posted out there. But it is realistic to charge for something for which you paid to have built. That seems fair to me, anyway.
Well I do not know what the statistics are for publisher web sites readership. I do know the newspaper business is losing it’’s readership (the hardcopy version) at a pace the publishers do not like. I am thinking there is no one factor involved with that. The current state of the economy (largely brought on by the media) (if you want an explanation of that just ask) is part of the dimishing readership. The availablity of information from other sources is also part of it. Apathy because of slanted news reports is also a factor. I also think the newer generation is geared towards electronic media moreso than their parents. As one of the older generation I chose to come along for the ride. Many are intimidated by the electronic age and just won;t even try to get up to speed. The longer they wait, the harder it is going to be to catch up. Charging for news stories is not a new concept. Newspapers have been doing it forever. Newspapers are like anything else, they have parrolls just like any other business. We are all just trying to survive. Some people provide useful services and some don’t. It would be good if all put as much effort into what they do. A quality product or service is the best advertisement. Let’s face it, if you call a plumber and he louses up your pipes, are you going to recommend him to your friends? Perhaps if there were standards that could be applied to newsmedia that they were really held accountable for the situatin for them would improve. Does not take long for someone to lose their trust but it is a long road to gaining it back.
I have been a subscriber to the AD for over 35 years. I do enjoy reading the blogs etc. but should you start charging for the web site you can count me out.
I understand you need to make money however doesn’t everyone? I am paying $14.74 each month. Some of the rate is for transportation and went up when gas was $4.00 per gallon. Now it is much lower however my cost for subscription has risen.
Don’t get too greedy or you might lose more customers than you imagine.
If you charge for the Online stuff you will lose me.
We should embrace the digital age. We should encourage discussion of our community rather that “prohibit” it for some.
p.s You could pull some Huffington Post stuff and have some Killer online stuff and charge for ads.