The Death Of Free Online News

[dryxzzz]

If you thought online news would be free forever, perhaps it’s time to think again. Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., announced during that company’s third-quarter earnings call that in “three to four weeks” it would be announcing a subscription model for news and other digital content. The impetus? None other than Apple’s iPad.

I don't like this subscription scheme and blame it on iPad.

What's your take on this guys?

Oh well... :sigh:

[soloworx]

I like this quote from the article:

But it’s not unreasonable to predict that smaller news sources will rebel against the trend and remain free—an excellent strategy to garner readers.

I'm sure there will be other sources of free news, don't worry — the start pages of AOL/Netscape, Yahoo! and Google will remain free. For opinion, there are bloggers galore to choose from.

It's not accurate to blame the trend on the iPad. It's just that, the iPad ENABLED this new impetus on reading. My opinion is that the iPad renewed people's interest in reading (in contrast to sitting in front of the boob tube and imbibing the news passively) — newspapers got a boon from that. My advice to Murdoch and company: don't be greedy — newspapers died because they became too expensive on paper; you'll die a second death when your electron news become expensive too.

[rafaelc378]

What's your take on this guys?

I hope Rupert Murdoch loses a ton of money with this venture.

[Salaryman Ryan]

The market will decide on that. As the commentators in Macworld say, if the major new sites start charging for news, there will be other companies that will fill in that gap. Considering internet users have been getting free news for years, I doubt this method will take off - unless they offer really exclusive stuff not found anywhere else.

[empty]

He has been planning on putting content behind paywalls long before the iPad. Fortunately there are still many who think differently and adopt approaches that keep the content free for consumers.

[elbert]

Buti nga, and I hope no one subscribes to his service.

Thank you iPad!

There is no death of free online news. News will always be free on the web, I can assure you that. The traditional newsprints like the ones owned by that ultra-rightist tabloidal media mogul just can't get to grips with the reality of the today's technology. Their business model has to be completely revamped if they wish to stay on for the next few decades.

[empty]

Case in point is the WSJ iPad app. I insalled it at the same time as BBC and USA Today. I got the same quality news from BBC and USA Today without having to deal with the annoying "pay per article" style of the WSJ. So I found myself never opening the WSJ and just deleted it.

There are some advantages to a paid subscription, availability of back issues and editorial content for instance, but its up to the consumer to decide if that is worth the price paid content providers wish to charge.

[suavecito]

It will always be free as long as there are paying advertisers. Same goes for Tv shows and such. So hurray for advertising!

[raypin]

....free online news maybe free but it is not error-free. I'd rather stick to traditional media for my news. People have always paid for newspapers so what's the big deal if the on-line versions becomes payware? News people also have to eat, you know....

[rob420]

Google news shall remain free! It's enough news for me.
THe newspapers have to offer something more than plain news if they want to charge for it.