End of free news?

[Mulder]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8186701.stm

I predict very few people will pay for online news! The end of free news? I don't think so.

[Trinoc]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8186701.stm

I predict very few people will pay for online news! The end of free news? I don't think so.

What sort of idiot would choose to get the news from Murdoch outlets anyway, even if free?

[chaggle]

What sort of idiot would choose to get the news from Murdoch outlets anyway, even if free?

A ME sort of idiot thanks Trinoc!! The Times is my paper of choice (when I can be bothered to get one now which isn't often).

He believes that a micro-charging structure, where readers pay just 5p or 10p to access an article, might work. "This is less than the price of an SMS [text message]," he argued.

That actually seems quite a lot to me. How much is a quality newspaper? Less than a pound I expect. I would expect to get as good or better value on-line.

[Croydon Bob]

A ME sort of idiot thanks Trinoc!! The Times is my paper of choice (when I can be bothered to get one now which isn't often).

I've read The Times and The Sun recently and I really can't see much difference now. The Sun has a few more colour pictures, the Times has a bit more badly written text. All the old broadsheets have dumbed down but The Times seems to have fallen down. I can't imagine why you would still read The Times even if you used to do so.

That actually seems quite a lot to me. How much is a quality newspaper? Less than a pound I expect. I would expect to get as good or better value on-line.

Yup. 1p an article would seem more realistic. Consider that in London we get two free newspapers every day, I get two free local papers every week, there's several free weekly papers and magazines handed out at stations, The Star has been 20p an issue for some weeks now. Then there's all the other national papers that are still going to have free news on the interweb, as is the BBC that has far more comprehensive coverage than the Murdoch Empire anyway (but less tits). Why would anyone pay 5p an article?

[Question Authority]

Not surprised in the least to hear this and I've kinda been waiting for this trend to start. I don't know about print in the UK, but it's suffering terribly in the US, with many papers closing their doors because of lack of subscriptions. I subscribe to the Los Angeles Times for a 4-day delivery (Thu thru Sun) and have heard a few times about the possibility they may end up closing their doors. (We lost our alternative paper about 20-25 years ago, which limited us to a single viewpoint (locally, I mean), and that's bad enough without losing all print)

I for one would never pay for content on the Internet, but since I'm usually in the minority (lol), I imagine that enough people will. Although I'm reminded of satellite radio which - last I heard - wasn't really doing all that well. I guess not as many people as they thought would be willing to pay for radio content if they can get it for free with a few commercial breaks (is why we have pre-sets, so we can easily find one that isn't airing ads, lol).

Initially, this movement may be slow to grow, but I think eventually we'll see most "reputable" (theoretically, lol) news sources become pay-per-view.

[Mulder]

The idea of free content grew with the internet. If people can get something free, they just go and look elsewhere. There's always someone doing it free.

The real problem here is the effect of the decline of print on journalism. We certainly wouldn't want to be left in the situation where only governments supplied news (paid out of taxes), in tandem with a lot of know-nothing bloggers.

I don't know what the solution to this problem is but paid internet news content isn't going to take off.

[polomint38]

Consider that in London we get two free newspapers every day

In the Morning

Metro (greater London) Tube and Train station
City AM (In the City area) Distributed by People at street level

In the Evening 4pm+

TheLondonPaper (Distributed by vendors(?) and at train stations)
London Lite (Sister paper to Metro) (distributed by vendors(?) at street level and at train stations)

Bob, that is 4 papers a statistical error of 100%

[Mulder]

And none of them worth cutting down trees for ...

[Croydon Bob]

In the Morning

Metro (greater London) Tube and Train station
City AM (In the City area) Distributed by People at street level

In the Evening 4pm+

TheLondonPaper (Distributed by vendors(?) and at train stations)
London Lite (Sister paper to Metro) (distributed by vendors(?) at street level and at train stations)

Bob, that is 4 papers a statistical error of 100%

Well, if we're going to nitpick about tiny little 100% errors then I'll have you know that I've never been given or seen a copy of City AM as I work in the City of Westminster not the City of London, and thelondonpaper isn't a paper it is a comic with fewer and less challenging articles than The Dandy.

[Drop Bear]

What sort of idiot would choose to get the news from Murdoch outlets anyway, even if free?

Just so. Rupert actually begun here in Adelaide. His yellow rag is still printed here.

I watch about 2 hours of news a day,from free to air public broadcasting; The ABC (like the BBC)and SBS (Special Broadcasting Service)which has a high ethnic content,including some terrific European and Asian films and TV series. Last night a Danish cop show started. It's quite good.


This month the ABC began a 24 hour news channel.I was worried it would be like the ones in the US,which are beyond appalling,but it's not. The content is high quality and varied. The coverage of the current election campaign is fantastic.

I rarely buy anything on line, and certainly will not pay for news. I do not have cable TV because I can't have what I want at reasonable price. IE movies and documentaries for about $40a month,free installation. That's what it's worth to me.

[alganbagerap]

I've only realised after reading this thread that the news feeds from the Grauniad, Torygraph and Daily Fail, have recently disappeared from my Yahoo home page; leaving only Yahoo news.
This is worse than dire, almost Sub-Murdochian.
Support print journalists, buy a Big Issue.

[smudge]

I've only realised after reading this thread that the news feeds from the Grauniad, Torygraph and Daily Fail, have recently disappeared from my Yahoo home page; leaving only Yahoo news.
This is worse than dire, almost Sub-Murdochian.
Support print journalists, buy a Big Issue.

I noticed that too. Mildly annoying as it was handy having the headlines for all three rags visible. Still, easy enough to visit the (still free) home sites. Though I won't bother with the "Daily Fail" too often....

[asthmatic camel]

This month the ABC began a 24 hour news channel.I was worried it would be like the ones in the US,which are beyond appalling,but it's not. The content is high quality and varied. The coverage of the current election campaign is fantastic.

I wish I could say the same about BBC News 24. They seem to have real problems finding stories to fill the available time. Recently, a madman ran amok in some obscure town in the North East of England, and we were treated to endless hours of footage consisting of an empty field and informed comment about said field.

It's even worse when a celebrity dies/has an affair or, crucially important, a BBC employee retires, catches a cold or, heaven forfend, shucks off his mortal coil.

Well worth the mandatory licence fee.

[Croydon Bob]

Well worth the mandatory licence fee.

"The Licence fee is far too low. It should be at least £400. For the excellent service the BBC provides; I'd gladly sell my house and all it's contents to help the BBC."

Whenever I'm annoyed at the poor coverage on BBC News 24 I turn over to Murdoch's Sky News and remember that it could be oh so much worse.

[Drop Bear]

Well worth the mandatory licence fee

Licence fee? Radio and TV licence fees were abolished in the 1970's here.

We have 5 separate government channels ABC 21,22 and 24(news) and SBS 1 and 2.
SBS has advertising.

Overall ,the standards of these channels are far above that of the commercial channels. The ABC shows the best British programmes,and virtually no reality shows or US sitcoms. SBS shows the World Cup and Tour De France..

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SBS= Special Broadcasting Service. Has things such as the news in Indonesian,as well as some great European and Asian movies and TV series. Fortunately not many from Bollywood as they usually go for about thee ours and have no gratuitous sex.