Image Credit: Getty Images, Chris Teso/Flickr
Lionel Barber, the editor of the Financial Times has said that he expects that most newspaper media will likely return to charging web-users after a long stint of offering their content for free online. He expects much of this to happen in the next 12 months arguing that it a possible way that good journalism can not only survive but thrive in the digital age. He also dismisses blogging as a future form of news journalism saying that it is based on rumor and opinion rather than news and fact.
PSFK argues that Barber has got it wrong and that he and any newspaper that might be considering such a move underestimate the power of the blogs. While there is a significant proportion of ‘blogs’ and other social media outlets that do thrive on rumor, gossip and opinion there are a lot of other sites that are popular because they have become important sources of (often niche) news. At least 7 of the top 10 blogs are news publications – it makes you wonder whether Barber even reads blogs.
A reader spoke to me at a gathering in New York earlier this week and said to me that she had cut the number of blog and tweets she read because PSFK’s Twitter feed covered a lot of her daily news needs. I responded to say that her activity was something we were hoping more of our readers develop over the next year. I explained to her that we have a plan to be seen as the “Economist magazine of ideas” – a place you can go and trust that we cover all the relevant news on our beat seasoned with a point of view – just like the Economist magazine of business. That would mean that our readers wouldn’t need to read as many newspapers, magazines, blogs and feeds because they would trust that PSFK would cover everything important when it came to new ideas.
We are, of course, not close to achieving that yet – but I can’t imagine that the return of pay-walls will hinder our business – nor the habits of our readers. Slow to respond, old media let the horse bolt long ago. Our readers value the aggregation of old-media stories we do on their behalf and so we will simply pay for subscriptions to those titles and continue to publish excerpts and comments for free. That should mean a boom in our traffic as readers avoid paying to subscribe to various publications.
Of course we are small fish but old media with paywalls will have to compete with larger competition. The Huffington Post is a serious news player that is investing in news journalism that will rival old-media’s traditional output – and the world wide web allows access to public funded free news sites such as the BBC.
Sure, there will be some examples where PayWall media will work – but this will only be in the niches where there is less competition and greater difficulty to access news.
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I tend to agree with Lionel, newspapers must certainly start to charge for their content. And I agree with you, too, Piers. Blogs will live on and prosper. The best bloggers will make money and a good living. Value begets value.
July 17th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
In 2008, the political blog “Talking Points Memo” won a George Polk Award (a highly coveted journalism honor) for its reporting on eight United States attorneys who were fired for political reasons. A story that the “Old Media” had not picked up on.
The investigative reporting of Talking Points Memo eventually sparked interest by the traditional news media and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The Talking Points Memo blog has 11 full-time employees, and is PROFITABLE.
….but, y’know….blogs are just a bunch of people posting rumors and opinions….oh and photos of their cats. Right?
July 17th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
In an era of collaborations, it would nice to see newspapers and blogs working together to inform and enrich experience among readers. There has to be a business design that works for both parties. Let’s get Ryan Jacoby on the job.
July 18th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I am very interested in it, could you please tell me some more imformation? Thank you!
July 20th, 2009 at 2:37 am
What’s wrong with paying for content? Somebody has to do it, even if it is not always the end consumer. PSFK too, will only thrive in the long term if it has a revenue stream that covers cost and provides profit. The news outlets need the same thing – only they are hampered from rapid change by their ongoing fixed costs. Or am I being to simplistic about this?
July 20th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Why don’t newspapers follow the model that is being driven by some of the adfunded music streaming companies like Spotify. I know they already run ads on their online sites but I am sure that consumers would rather watch a 15 second advert when they log in to a newspaper than to pay for the content that they have had free for the last 10 years. To be frank unless you have a business need (i.e. your business pays for it) for online news information you will get it somewhere else or not bother.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:48 am