This link has been bookmarked by 47 people . It was first bookmarked on 04 Jun 2009, by someone privately.
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06 Jun 12
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On the surface, paid content is the reasonable idea that people should have to pay for the professionally produced content they consume. Its core, however, is a post-rational demand that consumers abandon their habits of the past decade in favor of new behaviors intended to restore media companies to the profitability ordained to them by God Almighty.
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So can we finally, finally call this thing what it is? Quality journalism is expensive, and to the extent that it provides a public good, we will find ways to fund it. But top-heavy, poorly run, arrogant-to-the-bitter-end media companies? This is their crisis, not our crisis, and it certainly isn't about journalism.
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As recently as last week, in my secret thoughts I doubted my dire conclusions. These are enormous, powerful companies, representing billions of dollars of assets. They would survive. They had to.
But clearly they don't. In choosing to go backward instead of forward into the now, these leaders are sealing their fates. My wife, upon hearing my news from the conference, predicted the companies that go all-in on paywalls will be out of business within six months of their implementation.
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They'll do anything to survive... so long as it doesn't involve change. Consequently, for many companies the alternatives to paywalls are no longer options because it's too late in the day.
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But maybe I'm looking at this wrong. Maybe paid content is good for journalism because it's going to hasten the fall of this terrible system. It's going to create a vacuum in which innovators will be able to make a difference. Maybe the best thing these old media companies can do today is fail quickly.
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17 Dec 09
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29 Oct 09
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28 Sep 09
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18 Jul 09
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28 Jun 09
Michael BeckerDan Conover from Xark offers a long tirade, noting that the journalism crisis is really a crisis for the business owners who have run their companies into the ground, ignoring the way online content works.
paid content Dan Conover xark suicide pact newspapers business
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On the surface, paid content is the reasonable idea that people should have to pay for the professionally produced content they consume. Its core, however, is a post-rational demand that consumers abandon their habits of the past decade in favor of new behaviors intended to restore media companies to the profitability ordained to them by God Almighty.
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Quality journalism is expensive, and to the extent that it provides a public good, we will find ways to fund it. But top-heavy, poorly run, arrogant-to-the-bitter-end media companies? This is their crisis, not our crisis, and it certainly isn't about journalism.
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Will they buck up and go back out into the fray with fresh ideas and leadership? Or will they fold, casting bitter eulogies to their own imagined glories as they exit the stage?
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America's journalism infrastructure – from corporate giants to non-profit foundations like the American Press Institute and the Newspaper Association of America – is funded by dying companies. So when you hear about efforts to save newspapers (and, by extension, journalism), understand that answers that don't return the possibility of double-digit profits and perpetual top-down control aren't even considered answers. They're not even considered.
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11 Jun 09
Barbara Fisterjournalism isn't dead, big media is. Lots to consider in this post and in the comments.
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10 Jun 09
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Egg Berry"I think I'll remember last week as the moment when I finally knew, with a certainty approaching fatigue, that the newspaper industry – the business and passion that both shaped and warped me over the past 20 years – had chosen ritual suicide. The choice
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Mindy McAdamsThe stupidity of the paid content argument: Q/ This spring and early summer has been a continuous parade of naked emperors and specious arguments. There's the Cable TV argument. The iTunes argument. They've argued the Watchdog Case and the Piracy Case. An
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08 Jun 09
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07 Jun 09
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Joey BakerSorta perfect – the newspaper industry is doomed because they refuse to acknowledge that their old business model is broken. This isn't a more-of-the-same piece, it's well thought out, and offers good proof.
Media&Journalism **** newspapers businessmodel paidcontent OldMedia Printies
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Sarah Booker LewisPaying for online content requires changing people's habits.
journalism news newspapers internet paidcontent micropayments businessmodels
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jose muriloOn the surface, paid content is the reasonable idea that people should have to pay for the professionally produced content they consume. Its core, however, is a post-rational demand that consumers abandon their habits of the past decade in favor of new behaviors intended to restore media companies to the profitability ordained to them by God Almighty.
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06 Jun 09
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Consider InDenver Times: The online-only startup launched with a plan to fund its operations via 50,000 paid subscriptions. They got 3,000. That's 6 percent of their goal.
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Marcel WeissThe issue is “paid content.” That's the generic term. I consider it a euphemism for an entire suite of frustrations and furies that have been boiling out of my former profession since its once-invincible business model began its final slide to the deep in 2008. On the surface, paid content is the reasonable idea that people should have to pay for the professionally produced content they consume. Its core, however, is a post-rational demand that consumers abandon their habits of the past decade in favor of new behaviors intended to restore media companies to the profitability ordained to them by God Almighty.
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05 Jun 09
Paul RyanI think I'll remember last week as the moment when I finally knew, with a certainty approaching fatigue, that the newspaper industry – the business and passion that both shaped and warped me over the past 20 years – had chosen ritual suicide. The choice a
newspapers media journalism news digitalmedia business economics publishing
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04 Jun 09
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mediablogi"All sorts of content can be sold online quite profitably (you can read my thoughts on this here and here), but trying to force people to pay for generic news content because your advertising rates have dropped so low they no longer cover the cost of your
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