Scheer: Newspapers should keep content off web
In the The San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, suggests that newspapers are hurting themselves by putting free content online and that, in order to survive, they should "embargo their news content from the free Internet for a brief period -- say, 24 hours -- after it is made available to paying customers."
If that's newspapers' only hope, newspapers are in worse trouble that most people think!
Nov 15, 2006 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(4)
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4 comments about 'Scheer: Newspapers should keep content off web'It goes back to what Nicholas Negroponte said in "Being Digital." I want a "Daily Me" newspaper. Especially this time of year, I certainly don't need the extra 6 sections of Christmas ads, that I have no interest in and won't read, cluttering up the paper.
Posted by Paul Swansen at November 15, 2006 10:57 AM
Please Mr. Scheer, hop back in your time machine and key in 2000 for the year.
Posted by Patrick B at November 16, 2006 9:35 AM
There is a good argument to be made for content that is available only to paid subscribers. However, this is not news content, which is a pure commodity. Rather, it's highly specialized, highly actionable content of value to niche audiences. At SubHub we've been working with a number of journalists and other specialists to create highly targeted subscription websites. These sites work -- and make money -- when the expertise of the author is strong and clearly established, and the audience is highly motivated.
Kind regards,
Evan Rudowski
www.subhub.com
Posted by Evan Rudowski at November 17, 2006 10:38 AM
Sounds like Mr. Scheer's suffering from a massive failure of the imagination. I wonder if anyone's actually listening to him...
Posted by Joe Murphy at November 25, 2006 3:43 PM
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