If you don’t already know, here it is. There is an ongoing debate among newspaper publishers to charge for their online content. In the past these online addition of the print newspapers were being supported by advertisement which use to be make up for the cost of running the online addition of the newspaper. But no more since this recession started, it has ravaged this model of online newspaper being supported by advertisement and there is now talk of how to charge for some content like some newspapers already do.
But the question is will charging for content reduce readership or will it increase it depending on the loyalty of the subscribers.
Even with the few newspapers that are charging right now, there is enough free content on their online editions that you don’t need to pay for the whole edition. NYT one of my favorite newspapers tried it a few years ago to charge for some content but ultimately decided that it was futile. Maybe they will decide in the future.
The question is now will people have other sources that they can look into without paying for the online newspapers. And the answer is yes. These newspapers don’t create enough original content for anybody right now to pay for them. They still chase the same story and same event which you can read or even see on the television .Apart from that there are enough blogs out there which keep these news hungry people fulfilled with all the latest news.
So in order to be viable as a paid subscription (which is very hard right now due to high unemployment) these newspapers will need to create exclusive contents like the movies or books if they want to have subscription on their online editions. It is as simple as that. Very few people will be pay for the same news item which they can see it anywhere else for free.
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