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  • Paid News Content Strategy: Good or Risky?

    Kaustubh Katdare

    Kaustubh Katdare

    @thebigk
    Updated: Mar 28, 2010
    Views: 1.1K
    With 'The Times' and 'Sunday Times' announcing that the users will have to shell out money to access their content (£1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription), many critiques are saying that its a bad & risky strategy.

    When so much of news content is available on the Internet for free, do you think this move by these two leading newspapers (owned by Rupert Murdoch) is risky? Murdoch has been blaming Google for long time and mentions that his newspaper sites get less than 25% traffic directly from various search engines. We must not forget that the news sites enjoy lot of viewership!

    What's your point of view?
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Replies

  • Vega

    Member • Mar 28, 2010

    I think this will reduce their viewer base. because of money as well as tediousness. and especially when there are competetive news content available online. The online world is leaning towards offering things for free (or less price) and earn on advertisements.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 28, 2010

    I remember someone pointing out the trust factor. Paid content is thought to be trustworthy 😉 . I'd personally trust coverage by the times more trustworthy than a tweet.
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  • optimystix

    Member • Mar 29, 2010

    yes, the trust factor is something important.
    u see , among businessman and professionals, such news sites are more popular than social networking or even google. They would rather dish out a small amount of money(for them) and get 'quality' (trust factor?) news at one standard loaction rather than keep Googling some random reporting by others. Times group is a brand name when it comes to news business and thats what will get the loyalists back to them

    same applies to many of us. For eg, I see atleast 15 different news papers in my neighbourhood news stall but I always buy The Times of India. Not that others are not good, just that it has become a brand name for me in the news business and that it had a solid reputation, probably better than anyone else.


    And even if Times gets less hits from visitors to their sites due to this charging scheme, they can charge more from their advertisers. So in the end it doesnt truly matter much for them as their main market is still with the traditional newspapers.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 29, 2010

    Those who pay for the newspaper (print edition) won't mind paying for the online edition. That's what I think.
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  • gohm

    Member • Mar 30, 2010

    I agree, the notion that everything on the internet must be free is something we need to change our view on. The news agencies will have overhead costs for producing the news provided on the internet no different than print or TV. I'd rather pay a small fee or subscription for good quality news then have it provided to me free because of advertising revenue. As the end user of the news, if I help support the service not only can I eliminate advertising influencing the news but also provide feedback on what news is important to me.
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  • tashirosgt

    Member • Apr 1, 2010

    Will those who pay to view the newspaper online also see advertisements there?

    I think factual things are destined to be free on the web. Fictional things like movies and music will not be!
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  • vik001ind

    Member • Apr 3, 2010

    In my opinion, thats a risky strategy, very less proportion of public will like to pay for it inspite of being reliable. Majority of them likes free service thats the big reason why people use internet. In business world, we don't deal with good or bad, but we deal with captivating offers though there are level of ethical codes that everyone has to follow.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Apr 3, 2010

    tashirosgt
    Will those who pay to view the newspaper online also see advertisements there?

    I think factual things are destined to be free on the web. Fictional things like movies and music will not be!
    As Google says, "Advertising is Information" and its useful (sometimes!). I believe the paid version will have advertisements.
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