Rupert Murdoch Leads The Online Media War
WHAT’S the future for News Corp? The Sunday Times has already complained that the BBC cannot be “allowed to push it [newspapers] over the edge” with its online presence.
The Sunday Times lost £16m in 2008-2009. In response Rupert Murdoch is to start charging for access to his news sites across his raft of titles. The BBC remains free online.
Anorak’s Man in Wapping and New York takes up the story:
“Quality journalism is not cheap,” Mr Murdoch said. “An industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting.”
Murdoch was scant on details for such business models today, which could include online subscriptions, charging fees to read single stories and selling content on new platforms such as mobile reading devices. (We tried to read the New Yorker’s Michael Savage article online today and found we had to be a paid subscriber. We’ll findit somewhere else) – TB
If Murdoch starts charging for his news then the other papers will follow. He is the great innovator. Says he:
“Our policy is to win and we will make our content better and differentiate it from other people,” said Mr Murdoch.
“If we’re successful, we’ll be followed by other media.”
He’s right. The Mail online is not as confident as its dead tree organ and aims for the Sun’s celebrity audience. And the online Telegraph hides it best writers behind a welter of weird news and celebrity – it too wants to be The Sun.
Problem is, would anyone pay to read the doomed Observer online, or the Indy, which to Anorak’s mind should only exist as an online organ? Could they remain free and dare to set the agenda. Do their owners have the confidence in thier titles, like Murdoch does in his? Or would the BBC kill them off?
Posted: 6th, August 2009 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
