I've had a couple of posts about online news sites trying to charge for their content. From The New York Times (who still haven't done it, probably because they're trying hard not to lose their last 10 readers), to Newsday, to Newscorp's several attempts at paid content.
Well Newscorp is doubling down their bet into paid content with the release of The Daily for the iPad. While the iPad is, in my opinion, a stupid product from Apple, Newscorp and everyone else in the free world is certain it's the next iPod/iPhone, and are out buying them to ensure they will be.
Regardless, The Daily is paid content, costing $1.00 a week or $40 a year. Will it succeed? Probably not. The Wall Street Journal remains the anomaly in the paid content world, in that they are allegedly making money. If Newscorp's experience with The Times of London's 'paywall' is any indication, The Daily will be a miserable failure. The Times has seen it's web traffic drop somewhere between 60 - 90 % since erecting their paywall. Ouch. Making people not want to look at your newspaper is a good way to go out of (the news) business.
But this one might be different, if Murdock can convince all those affluent Apple fans that The Daily is the next 'must have' app. I'm guessing, even that is hopeless.
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The alleged failure of pay news sites is really an indication of the coming end of the internet as a news channel of any substance - period. Specifically, what is the alternative business model here? "Free" sites with advertising? Forget it. Never proven even before ad blockers.
If you presume that a business model of free content for nothing simply for the amusement of every Joy Division fan won't fly - what then will support this content? More specifically, when was the last time you looked at an ad and was influenced while looking at a free site?
Precisely.
It does seem impossible to survive solely on ads. Yet Google makes 99% of its revenue from ads and made $23.65 billion in 2009. Maybe there will just be less news sources, which is bad as well. Even television news is hurting...
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