[LINK] Whatever happened to Fairfax?

[Jan Whitaker]

At 03:18 AM 19/06/2012, Frank O'Connor wrote:
>An application that freed consumers from relying on single sources 
>for continuously updated news and current affairs (for example that 
>allowed me to plug in Reuters for economic and business affairs, 
>numerous local sites for local and Australian news, various overseas 
>publications for news of the world, various specialist sources for 
>sports news on AFL, Cricket, MotoGP, Grand Prix etc etc) through a 
>single UI ... in effect providing an individually tailored news 
>source ... is probably not far off being realised.

A guy on ABC radio this morning called in about a subscription 
service he uses called Press-something at $30/month. Jon Faine did 
his main segment first thing with Bruce Guthrie and Michael Gawenda, 
mostly focusing on the gaps, like regional access, those without 
computer skills, and those who can't afford computer equipment and 
online service costs.

I tend to think of online news as 'free', but I'm actually just 
spending my money on different aspects of the transaction, and that 
isn't going to the content providers. I also have adverts blocked, so 
they don't even get to legitimately count my eye-balls!

What happens to the traditional advertisers? I don't have much 
sympathy, but that is another component of the ecosystem. Classifieds 
are moving to local free papers and online services.

What happens to the free local papers that are also part of the 
fairfax and news stables? They are fully advert supported. So the 
business model must work in a micro way. Stories are local, too.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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