[LINK] Newspapers online

David Goldstein wavey_one at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 28 16:45:08 AEDT 2010


A definition of mass market is "A product that is designed for the mass market is intended to be bought by as many people as possible, not just by people with a lot of money or a special interest".

Therefore this means The Times and Sunday Times are the first mass market newspapers to put up paywalls for all their content. After all, others such as the New York Times did for parts of the newspaper. But their opinion writers complained that very few people were reading their articles. So Times Select is a poor example and it wasn't to do with declines in advertising revenue.

The article refers to does not include any mass market newspapers.

As for a survey asking if people will subscribe, well, you don't have to be very bright to find that people won't pay if they are given the choice.

Successful newspapers with paywalls aren't mass market newspapers. Examples many would have heard of are the WSJ and FT. As for the AFR - does anyone know if they are successful?

Elsewhere in the world newspapers are bleeding money. Even those dedicated to being free have problems. The Guardian is one, but they are bleeding money. But they are lucky and they can probably lose money forever more and could benefit from paywalls on most newspapers and possibly become the world's biggest online newspaper.

It will be interesting to see how The Times/Sunday Times proposal pans out. They need very few readers to pay to get more money than they now get from advertising.

David


----- Original Message ----
> From: Kim Holburn <kim at holburn.net>
> To: Link list <Link at anu.edu.au>
> Sent: Sat, 27 March, 2010 10:25:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Newspapers online
> 
> 
On 2010/Mar/27, at 4:06 PM, David Goldstein wrote:

> The article 
> said "becoming the first media firm to test consumers'  
> appetite 
> to pay for mass-market news online." Note the words "mass- 
> 
> market".

What does it mean to you, "mass-market"?

In this article 
> there's a chart of 27 newspapers who put up a paywall:

> href="http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/01/only-24-subscribe-at-newspaper-pay.html" 
> target=_blank 
> >http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/01/only-24-subscribe-at-newspaper-pay.html
> 
> Only 2.4% subscribe at newspaper pay sites
> A puny 2.4% of print 
> subscribers is the average number of people  
> paying for online 
> content at the handful of daily newspapers that  
> have been bold 
> enough to erect pay walls, according to a new survey.
>
> In the 
> first comprehensive study of actual consumer willingness to  
> pay 
> for online news, ITZ/Belden Interactive delivered both good and  
> 
> bad tidings to publishers hoping to begin charging for their 
> content.
>

The real problem is that printed newspapers are funded 
> by advertising,  
not the token fee or subscription.  The internet 
> does classifieds  
better than newspapers ever could.

> href="http://blog.wakefly.com/bid/11478/Online-Newspaper-Pay-Walls-Online-Newspapers-Fail-to-Monetize" 
> target=_blank 
> >http://blog.wakefly.com/bid/11478/Online-Newspaper-Pay-Walls-Online-Newspapers-Fail-to-Monetize

> 
> First, the New York Times failed with Times Select. Now, the same  
> 
> fate has befallen Newsday's pay wall:
>
> In late October, Newsday, 
> the Long Island daily that the Dolans  
> bought for $650 million, 
> put its web site, newsday.com, behind a pay  
> wall. The paper was 
> one of the first non-business newspapers to take  
> the plunge by 
> putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been  
> followed 
> with interest. Could its fate be a sign of what others,  
> including 
> The New York Times, might expect?
>
> So, three months later, how 
> many people have signed up to pay $5 a  
> week, or $260 a year, to 
> get unfettered access to newsday.com?
>
> The answer: 35 people. As 
> in fewer than three dozen. As in a decent- 
> sized elementary-school 
> class.
>
> Times Select had readers pay $50 a year to read the 
> newspaper's  
> columnists as well as have access to the full, 
> historical archives  
> and other premium material. After drawing 
> 221,000 subscribers, the  
> newspaper pulled the initiative because 
> advertising revenue  
> declined. Newsday took it one step further 
> and charged for all  
> website access (except for print 
> subscribers). Both did not succeed.



And yet there are also 
> successful examples of online newspapers with  
> 
paywalls.

>
> David
>
>
>
>
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Kim Holburn <> ymailto="mailto:kim at holburn.net" 
> href="mailto:kim at holburn.net">kim at holburn.net>
>> To: Link list 
> <> href="mailto:Link at anu.edu.au">Link at anu.edu.au>
>> Sent: Sat, 27 
> March, 2010 2:56:28 PM
>> Subject: Re: [LINK] Newspapers 
> online
>>
>> I got to the first paragraph and it was not 
> actually true.
>
> On
>> 2010/Mar/27, at 12:26 PM, > 
> href="mailto:> href="mailto:stephen at melbpc.org.au">stephen at melbpc.org.au">> ymailto="mailto:stephen at melbpc.org.au" 
> href="mailto:stephen at melbpc.org.au">stephen at melbpc.org.au 
>>  
> wrote:
>
>>
>> News Corp to charge for UK Times online 
> from June
>>
>> by Georgina
>> Prodhan, London, Fri 
> Mar 26, 2010  
> www.reuters.com
>>
>>
>>
>> (Reuters) - News 
> Corp will charge readers for online versions of its
>>
>> 
> UK
>> Times and Sunday Times newspapers from June, becoming 
> the
>> first media
>> firm to test consumers' appetite to pay 
> for mass-market news
>> online.
>
> First media company to 
> ask people to pay for online news?  I
>> don't
> think 
> so.  Is its content in general going to be as
>> accurate as 
> this?
> Off the top of my head I can think of 2 media firms
>> 
> which have had
> paid news sites for several years.  There may 
> be
>> lots of paid sites so
> obscure that few of us have ever 
> heard of them
>> or that have
> disappeared into the bit 
> bucket.
>
> Kim
> -- 
> Kim
>> Holburn
> 
> IT Network & Security Consultant
> T: +61 2 61402408  M: 
> +61
>> 404072753
> mailto:> href="mailto:> ymailto="mailto:kim at holburn.net" 
> href="mailto:kim at holburn.net">kim at holburn.net">> ymailto="mailto:kim at holburn.net" 
> href="mailto:kim at holburn.net">kim at holburn.net
>> 
> aim://kimholburn
> skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on
>> 
> request
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 
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-- 
> 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 
> 61402408  M: +61 404072753
mailto:> href="mailto:kim at holburn.net">kim at holburn.net  
> aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on 
> request









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