In accordance with a recent study, we're not overly impressed with Rupert Murdoch's plans to charge for utilization of his online news sites. Of 2,000 people asked if they'd ever buy online news, 9 out of 10 said 'No!' ;.Does that show that Murdoch's decision to charge users to access his news sites is foolish?
I wouldn't buy news, either, unless...
If I were asked 'can you ever buy online news?', I may possibly say 'no', too. In the end, within an age once we can usually learn about major events on Twitter before some of the news channels report them, why would we ever want buy access for their content? However, I would, and often do, buy quality and 'luxury' news. I could not pay a cent for among the shrinking number of free newspapers given out on my solution to work in a morning, but I would buy a Sunday broadsheet with all its extras and trimmings (even though the odds of me actually reading greater than a few pages are extremely small).
I have been known to sign up to a settled members' area on the internet site of a particular football team (which shall remain nameless) to gain access to extra content not on the main website: video interviews and press conferences, highlights of reserve and youth team matches, live radio commentary on match days. Would I pay to see The Sun online? No. You will find usually just about 2 paragraphs in each image-dominated article anyway. It only costs a few pennies to get genuine so there wouldn't be much value in which consists of site. The Times? Maybe, but as long as all the quality news outlets starting charging, otherwise I'd just choose the free one.
Using a Credit Card for a 20p Article?
I'm unsure how much Mr Murdoch really wants to charge his users to see articles, but I'm guessing there is going to be some type of account that really needs setting up. I certainly couldn't be bothered to obtain my wallet out each time I needed to see something and I could be very hesitant to commit to subscribing. On another hand, if they'd a similar system to iTunes, whereby you simply enter your password to gain access to a settled article and your card is billed accordingly, that could make a bit more sense. But, if I'd to achieve that for each major news provider, it would become very tiresome.
Ultimately, they could be shooting themselves in the foot to some extent. If your website makes it harder and less convenient for me to see articles Bangladesh Newspapers, I'll probably go elsewhere. I would believe that I would always have the ability to read the news headlines free of charge on the BBC's website, which will not be good news for the advertising revenue of the Murdoch online empire.
Copycats
Let's assume that I just wanted to see articles on a settled site so badly that I handed over my credit card details for them, what would stop me 'reporting' on which the content said on my freely available blog? I would imagine it could be very hard for a newspaper group to prevent thousands of bloggers disseminating the data freely for their users who'd gain a lot of traffic in the process.
Recipe for Success?
The success or failure of paid news is in the method used to charge and engage with users, assuming that the users value the content highly enough to deem it worth paying for. The jury is unquestionably still out on the whole concept and the chances are that lots of will endeavour and fail before a profitable system is developed. Until then, we'll have to attend and see.
