Want to read all about it online? It may cost you

Monday 21st September, 06:51 AM JST

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10 Comments

proxy at 09:16 AM JST - 21st September

Good luck.
BuddhismTech at 11:03 AM JST - 21st September

Non-mainstream-media bloggers are now better at delivering high quality news than the mainstream media. Bloggers are asking for donations while the mainstream media are selling products. The information war will not be very pretty!
DeepAir65 at 11:25 AM JST - 21st September

If they are ad free and good quality I might consider it
randomenigma at 02:00 PM JST - 21st September

Hey, if they want to do it, let them. I (and presumably many others) will just not use those news sources and go for the free ones instead.
Ranger_Miffy at 02:17 PM JST - 21st September

Killing the golden goose. Information must be free to roam.
sharky1 at 08:26 PM JST - 21st September

Would not even consider paying. Already pay for Internet access, pay for my computer, pay for computer accessories, how much more do I need to shell out??
Cicada at 10:02 PM JST - 21st September

Journalism Online’s co-founder, Steven Brill, believes newspapers can still hold on to most of their online readership by charging for only their best work — information, images and audio unlikely to be found anywhere else on the web.

If it is not found anywhere else, then it is not news.

This presumes publishers will be able to prevent the content from being copied and pasted or even just summarized at other sites, a potentially daunting task.

Daunting= impossible. And anyway if their information is important, it would be reported elsewhere. If no one is reporting it, then it is not news. Even commentaries or opinion pieces would be reported as news, if the opinion was considered important.

“This is like a four-dimensional chess game. It’s really complex,” said former newspaper editor Alan Mutter...

The point is, would you pay money to read Alan Mutter's opinions?
sf2k at 02:16 PM JST - 22nd September

they can't make money online because they are not an online business. Experience has shown me that no matter the intentions, unless online business has Internet people in the decision making process they cannot succeed.

Thus they will just shrink down to a size that is supported by ads and local subscribers. They are too big, too merged and too stupid. A lot of fluff will go, and that's a good thing.

Editors are taken to task more online, if it bleeds it leads isn't how most of us use the Internet. The level of conversation happens more readily than a newspaper could ever achieve.

When Gore noted 928 peer reviewed articles on climate change with zero articles against it, a 100% acceptance rate, the newspapers had a 53% acceptance rate. Why anyone should accept the lousy science and low C- reporting standards of newspapers is another nail in their coffin.

Good riddance to the useless news. Hello useful news
sf2k at 02:46 PM JST - 22nd September

sorry, that's clearly a D not a C-
dwjohnst at 04:50 AM JST - 23rd September

The news we enjoy reading for the most part have descended from printed newspapers and magazines, that I for one have paid for ever since I can remember. The difference is that now, the media has changed, but writers, reporters, and equipment are all still required to generate this content, just like in the paper days. So, point one is that it costs money to create the content, especially content that does more that report on just a single event but instead synthesizes a series of related events to form real information, not just data.

So then if we agree that information costs money, how can we justify that we the consumer of it should not share responsibility for its cost?

Spread over all of we consumers, the cost would be little. If we don't choose to pay something then only two outcomes can happen: the news will be subsidized by a government or other source having their own agenda, or worse, the good sources will fold.

I'm ok with paying a small amount, just like I now pay for cable tv rather than just over-the-air tv as before.