Reflections of a Newsosaur: How to charge for online content - The Diigo Meta page

• 13 Dec 09
  

  Laurice Taitz

  journalism economics

• 07 Mar 09
  

  Jimmy Breeze

  media journalism internet free business economics

  • If we are going to save the tradition of professional journalism, it is vital for publishers to begin producing content that is sufficiently unique, authoritative and valuable to motivate consumers to pay for it.
  • People will pay for all manner of content on the web, it if it is thoughtfully conceived and marketed.
  • 4 more annotations...
  • • The Wall Street Journal, which claims more than 1 million paid subscribers to its website, is the most notable among newspapers in charging for access to some of its content. How does it get away with charging, when so much business information is available for free from places like Yahoo Finance and 24/7 Wall St.?
      
      The answer is: Original, authoritative reporting and the power of its brand.
    • The Journal’s generally reliable and insightful reporting – which is flashed immediately across a variety of interactive and mobile platforms – provides critical and actionable information to executives, investors and policy makers. To steal an old tag line from Forbes, it is an indispensable capitalist tool.
    • By aggregating an audience of business people willing and able to pay to view its contnent, the Journal also has created a premium audience for advertisers, who pay top dollar to reach it. Thus, selling content reaps the additional benefit of boosting ad revenees.
    • Paid content doesn’t have to be business-oriented. It simply has to scratch the itch of a large enough niche of readers to make it worthwhile to produce the content.
• 

  tony curzon price

  macarthur media economics

  • If you happen to be a publisher wrestling with how to move from free to paid content, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t charge for it. If it’s good enough, readers will pay. If you attract the right audience, advertisers will pay, too.
• 04 Mar 09
  

  roland legrand

  education journalism newspapers content

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