Those are words I never thought I’d write.
Cablevision is going to start charging readers to view its content, according to Reuters.
But Cablevision Chief Operating officer Tom Rutledge said the cable TV company was aware of the difficulties faced by the traditional newspaper business.
“Our goal was and is to use our electronic network assets and subscriber relationships to transform the way news is distributed,” he said on a conference call with analysts.
“We plan to end the distribution of free Web content,” he added.
I say it’s long overdue, but it takes brass to be the first off the blocks (the WSJ doesn’t count since it always charged).
Newspapers are in a death spiral and giving away your content for free isn’t cutting it. People will pay for the news online, especially now that they’re becoming aware of how perilous the states of their local papers. And if they won’t pay online, it will slow circulation declines.
Now, who’s up next?
The real problem that the internet created wasn't sucking paying readers from print, it was creating lots and lots of new ad inventory, thereby driving down ad rates for everyone - print and online. That genie isn't going back into the bottle.
#1 Posted by Mark K., CJR on Thu 26 Feb 2009 at 05:48 PM
After all the endless chatter about "the future of journalism," I look forward to seeing the market settle the matter -- which it's already doing, by the way. Let's set aside the prognostications and let different business models compete with each other. There probably won't be "one best way," after all's said and done, anyhow.
#2 Posted by Kevin B. O'Reilly, CJR on Fri 27 Feb 2009 at 12:34 AM