It's not the first time the question has been asked, but it's become particularly relevant now. Join Chris and Gihan as they go head-to-head on this issue in our first Focal Point debate.
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Monday 19 October 2009
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ABC TV's Media Watch picked up on our idea and hosted a debate between Michael Scott (ABC) and the Murdochs (News Corporation) on Old Media's future on the Internet. An interesting point raised towards the end of the episode is: All the signs are that we won't be asked to pay for what we're getting now for free. We'll be asked to pay for what we're not getting. This sounds very much like the "freemium" business model we've discussed elsewhere.
The Washington Post reports that a recent audit of US newspapers confirms a continued decline in circulation. The few newspapers gaining in circulation were small dailies focussed on local news and advertising.
Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols opine in the Washington Post that government subsidies are needed if US journalism is to survive and flourish.
Veteran US journalist Saul Friedman has resigned from Newsday after Cablevision, Newsday's owner, decided to put its content behind a paywall. Friedman gives his reason for quitting as being "I cannot send my columns to people who don't subscribe to Newsday. And if it is picked up by Google or Yahoo, it would not be accessible".
In an interview with Sky News, Rupert Murdoch says that he plans to prevent Google, and other search engines from indexing News Corp. web-sites. This would form part of News Corp's strategy to only allow access to paying subscribers.
Cody Brown presents an interesting perspective in his article A Public Can Talk To Itself: Why The Future of News is Actually Pretty Clear. He suggests that the trend towards new media is not a new trend at all, and is fact is similar to the way newspapers started.
Newsday.com's paywall has yet to pay for itself.
The BBC reports that the on-line versions of The Times and Sunday Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, will be moved behind a paywall in June.
ProPublica.org an independent, non-profit online newsroom, has become the first online organization to win a Pulitzer Prize, when journalist Sherri Fink was awarded the Pulitzer for investigative reporting.
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