The Evolving Newsroom

Phew, what a week.

Rupert Murdoch gives plenty of notice that he plans to introduce paywalls on all his news websites (prompting speculation that he’s signalling to fellow newspaper owners to hurry up with their own paywall plans):

NEWS Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch has announced the company will charge readers to access online content within a year.

Mr Murdoch revealed the plan during the announcement of News Corp’s full-year earnings.

“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting,” he said.

“The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites.”

Fairfax Australia announces it will introduce tiered pricing on its news websites

THE loyalty of readers accustomed to getting their news online free is about to be tested, as Australia’s largest newspaper groups prepare to charge for access to their websites.

Fairfax Media is considering two levels of access, one free and the other incurring a charge, as newspapers move to protect declining revenues.

Fairfax New Zealand says it is investigating introducing tiered pricing on its news websites

Fairfax Media New Zealand group head of digital Stephen Smith today confirmed that the company is following its Australian parent’s lead in investigating two levels of access for its online publications.

… Mr Smith confirmed that Fairfax New Zealand was looking at “a number of models that could be considered around the sale, or charging for content online”, and noted that it was an industry-wide challenge.He didn’t know what sort of time frame was involved for when Fairfax would start charging however.

The NBR says it has turned a profit online since imposing a paywall on some of its content:

TEN days after New Zealand weekly paper The National Business Review began charging for online content last month, the publication’s website finally turned a profit.

According to publisher Barry Colman, who acquired NBR from Fairfax in 1989, the site was never profitable from ad revenue alone.

Since July 17, about 20 per cent of the content on nbr.co.nz has been locked behind a paywall and made available only to subscribers for an introductory rate of $89 for six months.

“There has been so much talk and speculation (about charging for online content) over so many years. Sooner or later you have to stop talking and chance your arm,” Colman says.

“I would hate to die wondering whether it would work.

“I think it will work but if it doesn’t at least we will know the answer and we’ll have some hard data. We’re not here to run a charity. It is our contention that business readers will pay for news if they can’t get it anywhere else and if it is useful. Those are the two criteria.

“And by charging, you’re also lifting the bar on journalism.”

After three weeks, Colman says there has been a “significant uptake” of subscriptions, although he will not provide numbers. “We didn’t know what to expect when we took the plunge. Right now I’m very happy with the progress,” he says.

“And advertisers love it because you are going straight to the senior business decision-makers. But it will be 6 to 12 months before we can say if it’s a success or not.”

News that The Observer may close did the rounds

Which prompted the creation of a ‘Save the Observer’  Twitter account and Facebook group, and speculation it’s actually going to relaunch in a modified form.

Simon Jenkins said he saw the future at Glastonbury and The Guardian should do what musicians do — hit the road:

This summer I have found myself attending four live events: the Hay Festival, Glastonbury, the CLA Game Fair and the Welsh Eisteddfod. All were packed. They had almost nothing in common, other than vast crowds being parted from considerable sums of money in the cause of affinity. While television companies and online projects ailed, live was booming.

If newspapers were anywhere at these events it was, crazily, as sponsors rather than profit-takers. They have let the torch of cultural championship pass to a new generation of promoters and impresarios. Local newspapers are quietly dying when they should be staging everything from commercial fairs to sporting events and arts and book festivals. There is money in all of them. Newspapers should not be investing in fancy printing presses but in the “long-tail” economics of live enterprise, with the printed word as a mere core activity.

Mark Cuban suggested Fox and other news websites take a leaf out of Book Clubs’ books:

What Fox, and any media conglomerate has to do is find DIGITAL or INCREDIBLY  HIGH MARGIN products that have a perceived value to the consumer, that you can bundle with your online content.

You could offer a “Newsjunkies Subscription”  that includes:

a.  Access to every Newscorp news website from around the world (excluding the wall street journal). From the NYPost to the UK’s Sunday Times, Sun and more.

b. Your choice of any 2 books from our Harpers Collins collection. That’s right. Pick any 2, from our Best Sellers list, or from the special list we have put together specifically for newsjunkies like you. Its your choice if you want them in hardback, paperback or e-book format.

c.  A subscription to our news magazine, The Weekly Standard. The choice is yours whether you would like it delivered to your emailbox, printed and mailed to you or both !

d. A $99 credit at a special edition of  The Fox Store that we put together exclusively for our News Junkie Subscribers. You can pick from newly released to DVD movies or from our classics. Its up to you !

So to summarize. In addition to Fox websites from around the world, a $ 79 dollar annual value, you get:

2 books from our Harper Collins collection, with a value of up to $79.

a subscription to the Weekly Standard, worth up to $ 64 (in a deal with its new owner)

a special $99 credit at The Fox Store where you can pick from an amazing selection of movies and tv shows.

For a total value of  $ 321.

Because our Fox News Junkie Subscribers are critically important to us, we are offering this special package for a limited time only.  This amazing package can be yours for the low low price of only…

$ 9.95 per month with a minimum commitment of 15 months !

Add a subscription to the Wall Street Journal  Online for $ 5 more per month, or get both the WSJ online and daily delivery to your home for an additional $9.95 per month.

People continued waiting to see who has joined up with Steve Brill’s Journalism Online scheme, which aims to:

…address the urgent need for a comprehensive, immediate plan to address this downward spiral in the business of publishing original, quality journalism.

Grounded by the common-sense principle that those who invest in and create content should not be bystanders while others make a profit from it, they seek to enable news publishers to generate new revenues from readers and distributors for their digital content and—because it does not have to be a choice between one revenue source or the another—to restore the optimal mix of circulation and advertising revenue necessary to finance original reporting and editing. For print publishers, this move toward paid access online will also restore the value proposition of the print medium by eliminating the fully free online alternative.

And Adam Westbrook said he was glad that newspapers were finally announcing plans for pay walls:

Do I support pay walls? No.

Do I think it’ll work? No.

But it’s good because someone, somewhere is doing something.