News Limited could be a fortnight away from locking up some of its websites as part of a brave new world of paid web content.
As I have previously reported, the metro dailies have been holding themselves in readiness for some time to introduce a paywalled version of their content at short notice. There are hints from inside the organisation an announcement could be imminent.
Last week, Herald Sun publisher the Herald and Weekly Times raised eyebrows with the creation of a new position — associate editor (paid content). Steve Acott, who was editing the company’s MX freesheet, will take up the post with special responsibility for AFL content and, according to a statement, “finding innovative ways to bring the game to life on our websites”.
There is an expectation that an announcement of some sort will be made at the Mumbrella 360 conference on June 7, where CEO of News Digital Media Richard Freudenstein is a keynote speaker. The flyer flags as much and there are a lot of News Limited people planning to attend. The blurb teases:
“This is your opportunity to hear from one of the world’s leading media executives, in what is likely to be his only public address of 2011. Although the title of his speech is yet to be confirmed, given Richard’s seniority at News Limited, it is almost certain he will talk about the role of newspapers in the digital world and the latest on News’ paid content plans.”
The thinking in the newsrooms is that each masthead will have several “presences”. There will be the hard copy ink-on-dead-trees edition, the free web edition, the paywalled web edition, and the mobile device application.
Each will have its own chief, answering to the overall editor. Meanwhile each main area of news — health, education and so on and so forth — will have a senior reporter with power to make decisions about what to break and where it should go.
Needless to say, this is a key move and a significant experiment, in the business model and newsroom organisation. Stay tuned.
“ink-on-dead-trees edition”, Margaret, seriously? Would it kill you to call them newspapers? Still a helluva lot more of them out there than people reading Crikey
Breathlessly, Margaret inched toward the thought: paid for journalism! Eek. But what will happen to all the taxpayer-funded and otherwise freeloading luvvies who have done so much for journalism via RMIT, UTS, Crikey etc??? Surely THERE CAN BE NO HOPE FOR NEWS MEDIA IN A COMMERCIAL GUISE.
Pete from Sydney: some newspapers exist only online, such as the Brisbane Times. “Ink-on-dead-trees” makes it quite clear that Margaret is talking about old-skool paper-and-ink newspapers. I’ve used “dead tree edition” myself. It’s an important distinction to make in this day and age. And if anyone is hurtin’ by this particular figure of speech, it isn’t her.
Then those that have done so much against “journalism” – in it’s name.
How successful have News Ltd’s other paywalls been? My family in London has The Times & Sunday Times home delivered each day but don’t qualify for the much puffed free access to the online content because they support their local newsagent, not the company’s “official” distribution network (check website for fine print).
I subscribed to The Times Online for several months but didn’t renew because many of the stories were freely available on other media websites or reprinted in The Australian.
I didn’t rule out renewing my sub sometime in the future so agreed to receive a daily email from The Times listing its main stories, but this only lasted a few weeks. Do I miss it? Not really.