The News Industry's Dilema

This post is a response to an article on theglobeandmail.com entitled:

Newspaper paywalls: financial salvation or suicide?

As newspapers continue to watch advertising money dry up, more and more are considering charging readers to drive up revenue

May you live in interesting times. A rather understated Chinese curse.

These are very interesting times for Hollywood, the record industry and the newspaper biz. And while I have no love lost for the first two which have seen their business models decimated (they gouged and screwed the public for years) I empathize with the newspaper industry.

Perhaps it was a mistake to offer content for free online in the 90's but its academic since that horse has already left the barn.  It is unlikely that merely tweaking content and slapping fees on online content will work.  As it's been pointed out already, been there, done that, didn't work.

While everyone has their view on the political leanings of each paper, I have sampled the Post and the Star and find them to be too biased for me, especially the Post.  I have stuck with the Globe because I find it to be "just right".  The fact I see posts bemoaning it's liberal slant and others decrying it's neo-con journalists speaks to the successful balancing act the Globe and it's journalists manages to do.

I value the info I get in the globe online and therefore would be willing to pay a monthly fee for it.  For me, an Uber Techhead, hence the name, the thought of a paper paper is completely foreign and totally unnatural.

And while I would be willing to pay a fee, I would only be willing to pay something in the order of $4.95/mo because it is also true that while the Globe has implemented some features that take advantage of this electronic medium, they have done so in a rudimentary, ham handed, idiotic way.

Everyone in electronic media knows pre and post roll ads on videos are the devil and drive down viewership.  I may watch one Globe video but not more since I would have to sit through another 30 second ad to watch a 2 min clip.  Yuck!

When the Globe figures out ways to deliver multimedia content that is more valuable and monetize it in more creative ways than pre-roll ads I will gladly pay more for that service.