The value of daily news

In hindsight, it seems a staggeringly stupid decision. Especially when you consider the industry behind it is supposed to be a clever one.

Relatively shortly after the internet was invented, the world's newspapers, almost unanimously, decided to give away all their content completely free of charge upon it. Why? Who knows. Newspapers, read at that point by almost everyone capable of reading all over the world every day, had been selling perfectly well.

For ten years, we have all been reading the news free of charge on the internet. Quite a lot of that news has been about what a terrible state the journalism industry is getting itself into. Publishing houses and newspapers have been hit hard, they moan, by the technological revolution the internet represents. As a result, thousands of perfectly good journalists have been made redundant.

There used to be a good joke about lawyers: ‘what do you call a hundred lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.' Many of you, particularly those of you who take the time to comment on the articles on the arabianbusiness.com, will probably feel something approximating the level of warmth this joke implies towards lawyers for journalists. Rotten bunch journalists, eh? But everyone reads the news.

The argument for giving away their wares for free had two supposed strengths a decade ago for newspapers. One, everyone else was doing it and not doing it might cause a drop in readers. Two, they would be able to charge advertisers extortionate rates for the privilege of placing ads online, so huge would the readership numbers be.

For anyone who thinks editorial integrity should not be compromised by advertising revenues, the fact the second argument has not held up is a good thing. The Daily Mail's website is the most popular news website in Britain, with 29.5m individual users a month. Adverts there cost about 12 percent of adverts in the print edition. Why? Because advertisers still believe that online advertising is not as effective as print advertising.

Over the next twelve months, in a collective regaining of sanity and realisation that news remains a valuable commodity whatever format it is consumed in, almost all news organisations are going to start charging for access to their websites. The only debate still being had is how the payment models will work.

Rupert Murdoch said in May, after losing $3.4bn over the previous year, all News International sites will be charging by summer 2010, and the New York Times has made noises about moving to charging much sooner than that. The Wall Street Journal already charges.

"Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting," Murdoch said.

It cannot be long now until the internet in its entirety is packaged and sold in the way satellite television is sold, namely in bouquets of varying degrees of access. Internet behemoths like YouTube and Skype are losing money, Facebook makes nothing, and other sites such as Hotmail could be enormously lucrative if users had to pay to use them. Charging for access would not prevent these sites from charging for advertising. It would therefore be doubly lucrative.

The internet has stopped being a phenomenon of wild unpredictability. In the way that most of us visit the same shops, we look mostly at the same websites every time we go online. They add value to our lives, and thus they are worth something that can be monetised.

Certainly, paying for news will save an industry that is struggling. For that reason, it is a good thing.

Damian Reilly is the editor of Arabian Business English.

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READERS' COMMENTS

No wonder journalism is dying
Posted by FA, Dubai on Friday 4 September 2009 at 17:28 UAE time


When journalists are paid to present a point of view to the public, a point of view which used to be their exclusive domain during the days of print. The internet (or lets call it what it really is now: USER GENERATED CONTENT) counters this arrogance by allowing people access to news HOW THEY want to hear it-not how an editor wants to spin it or how an advertiser wants to pitch it. There are and always will be outlets which have maintained journalistic integrity and these outlets will command paid services whether over the internet or otherwise. As for the rest-the ones who sell us the fantasy that everything is hunk dory in Dubai or the ones who spoke of WMDs ad nauseum and yet others who concocted stories of AlQaeda recruitment cells in every middle eastern country-these will fail miserably whether they charge or not because the user can go elsewhere for genuine news-paid or not.
Bottom line-why should I pay to hear someone try to form my opinion - someone influenced by advertisers and under government/editorial scrutiny. My father didnt have a choice (well - he had free to air TV), I do and I intend to exercise it. I am sick of being pitched ads to and sick of being lied to-I'd rather hear real people blog of real events and real videos speak of real events rather than be given lies that are skewed to an agenda.

How naive you are...
Posted by Sandjockey, Dubai, UAE on Thursday 3 September 2009 at 15:20 UAE time


....if you think that the online newsites have been giving it away for free.

Just take a look at the page on which your editorial is "printed" and you will see ads aplenty. 4 "static" ads plus the popup when I first get to the page. Money is being made and the medium costs are already covered.

The truth is that the print side of the house is a losing enterprise and, therefore, the online editions are being asked to pick up the slack. Mind you, I'm not to fused about this as it is their right to charge. However, this isn't a case of "print it and they will come".

There will always be free news sites and Rupert Murdoch and other news sites will quickly realize how they will lose readers (and hence money) to the free sites. Furthermore, the value of the ads on their sites will decrease dramatically as advertisers pay for "eyes on ad" and page counts rule the ad fee.

I, for one, will not likely move to any paid site. I just don't need that specific news that badly and know that I can easily find the same news elsewhere, and for free.

Free?
Posted by Mr Richard, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Thursday 3 September 2009 at 11:21 UAE time


"For ten years, we have all been reading the news free of charge on the internet".

Really?

So where is all the talk of eyeballs and the value as me as a reader to the advertiser?

Just in the way that if I listen to commercial radio I am of value to the advertiser; or if I watch commercial TV I am of value to the advertiser (even if I switch over at the ad breaks).

Online news sites are the same.

I think that journalists who ten years ago would not sully their art by giving a second thought to the dark side of advertising sales should not start bleating over asking customers to start payng for news today.

You were in it together ten years ago and you are in it together now.

Internet news
Posted by mother nature, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Thursday 3 September 2009 at 10:31 UAE time


Internet news is far superior than traditional newspapers and the content is worth paying for. Traditional printed news is "yesterdays news" vs. internet "right now news!".

However, my first reason for subscribing to online news and magazines was my desire to reduce pollution, save energy and preserve natural resources.

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