/Big Question/ Behind the wall
27/04/2010 | Filed under Discover > Big Question
Will Rupert Murdoch’s paywall plan for The Times be a success?
Internet playboy
Drew Curtis
Fark
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
Drew is the owner of Fark.com
B3ta guy
Rob Manuel
B3ta
It’s hard to see why many would pay for exclusive access to a general news website when there’s perfectly good if not better alternatives available for free.
I suspect The Times will have to partially backtrack in a few months but somehow spin it to claim it’s been a massive success.
Rob is co-founder of B3ta
Hosting guru
Dominic Monkhouse
PEER 1
Not in a million years! But it will mean more people read the Telegraph and the Guardian. His ad revenue will plummet as well along with the viewers. But stubbornly they will try for a while and pretend it’s working.
Dominic Monkhouse is UK MD at PEER 1
Activist
Oxblood Ruffin
Hactivismo
I expect that it will be a win for Murdoch and a loss for the internet. The numbers suggest a financial benefit and fewer eyeballs. However, with a smaller number of page views, The Times will probably see its prestige and international influence decline.
Oxblood Ruffin is the founder of Hacktivismo
Software expert
Ian Moulster
Microsoft
When I was considering this question I gave some thought to the kinds of services I’m prepared to pay for on the web. There aren’t many. I pay for an online mind-mapping tool that appears to be better than all the free versions. I pay to remove ads from my Hotmail account. I pay for Xbox live. I pay for a music service subscription, but not much else. So the question for me is how Murdoch can make this a service I would be prepared to pay for.
We know that the websites for both papers are being relaunched, and special applications and potentially other innovations are being planned. And there will be some brand loyalty from people that like the two papers’ house style, opinions, range of topics, etc. It’s really a question of how far Murdoch is prepared to go to make this a truly differentiated experience compared to, say, the BBC news website. And whether people really accept that news is not as commoditised as some people suggest it is; in other words, whether the way a news story is reported is as important as the news story itself. Plus of course how many ‘exclusives’ there are, and how relevant or valuable they are.
There’s a school of thought that suggests that online news has become somewhat samey and unexciting, mainly because it isn’t seen as a big revenue generator and therefore simply isn’t worth significant effort and investment and serious innovation. It remains to be seen whether News International is really prepared to push the boat out for the paid-for experience or not. In essence, if all they intend to do is give the websites a bit of spit and polish but essentially deliver the same service that’s free today, then this is going to fail pretty quickly. But if they really innovate and show the world just how good a news service can be in terms of content and delivery, then they’re in with a shout. I may subscribe for a week just to try it out. Whether I continue the subscription or not remains to be seen.
Ian Moulster is senior product manager in Microsoft’s Developer & Platform division in the UK
Business specialist
Dickie Armour
Fibranet Services Ltd
I think newspapers have been struggling with newspaper sales for a while now and it’s the obvious choice for a newspaper group like News International to try to monetise its online content.
If they get the small percentage take-ups they’re hoping for then that will be a nice monthly income. But I don’t know how much they currently make from traditional newspaper sales and how much the drop-off in sales has been.
So will it be a success? According to whom? The company might be happy with five to 10 per cent take-up from its daily online users.
From an online perspective, I personally rely more on Twitter and other social media sites to keep me in touch with news that interests me, and so I wouldn’t pay for access to any online news services.
From a TV perspective I love Sky News and am a massive fan of Sky+. TV is definitely the main medium I use to catch up on the news. So as long as Rupert Murdoch and his son don’t mess with the financial model of Sky News then I wish them every success with their paywall plan!
Dickie Armour is general manager of Fibranet
PR guru
Faye Hawkins
Champion Communications
As an exercise in showing there’s life in the old dog, this stunt is Rupert’s bravest move yet. If the Times and Sunday Times can truly find exclusive news to run online every single day, the premium price could be justified for customers. Precedent dictates that it’s doomed to fail. Surely supporting the underdog is something us Brits can support, though. Thank goodness someone is prepared to make a stand that there is broader and deeper value to online content that’s worth more than the advertising sold around it.
Faye Hawkins is director of Champion Communications
Hosting specialist
Neil Barton
Hostway, UK
It’s clear that the newspaper industry has suffered more than most due to news content being readily available on the internet. However, for this very same reason I can’t see The Times paywall being a success, unless every other media outlet adopts the same approach. There will always be another site where news content will be available for free.
iTunes has shown that people will pay for online content that can be accessed for free or at less cost elsewhere. However, that content doesn’t age, meaning that it retains long-term value. A multi-tiered subscription model whereby users can access different levels of information based on the level of subscription similar to one adopted for the Financial Times, and other online services such as Spotify, is probably the best model for paid-for media content. The hallmark of the more successful implementations of the model, though, is to implement a free basic subscription that gives access to the minimum amount of content, to entice users to use the site and then moving them up the subscription tiers once they want greater content and functionality. To implement a complete paywall with no free base subscription or content will most likely result in reduced growth rates and harm expansion of the site. People are willing to pay for premium content, but they want to know that the content is worth paying for, so to trial it with a free subscription would be ideal.
Neil is the director of Hostway UK
Hosting guru
Andrew Saunders
Zen Internet
If other titles start to follow their model it could be a success. If it ends up being the only title doing this, it will fail. But The Times must be applauded for being proactive and taking steps to develop and adapt its business model to the changes brought about by the internet.
Generally, the printed media industry has embraced the internet well and focused heavily on developing an online presence and new associated lines of revenue through online ads, affiliate marketing, subscription services and a range of digital marketing services. This contrasts dramatically with the music industry. It failed to respond to a changing world and did not adapt or evolve its business model, which is now in terminal decline or at least very sick. Yet still rather than embrace the internet as an opportunity for new distribution models to reach broad audiences, it still persists with strong arm tactics to try and control the internet in the way it controlled high street retailers and want to turn ISPs into its unpaid policemen.
Not a Murdoch fan, not always a fan of the press but we need professional news reporting even if we’re not going to buy our traditional morning paper. Full marks for trying new things and not just sitting back and complaining that the internet is destroying newspaper sales.
Andrew is head of product management & marketing
Ecommerce specialist
Nick Vincent
Neoworks.com
It’s a bold move, and one that I hope works, but in the short term it will lose them a huge amount of readers. Users of the internet currently expect their news content for free, and imposing a charge for this will cause them to migrate to other trusted news sources, which do not require payment.
As traditional print media declines, the income for newspaper organisations such as The Times will decline with physical sales and that income will have to be replaced with revenue from online services. Whilst social networks and user generated
content will continue to provide the most timely news updates, the kind of well researched and informed opinion produced by professionals costs and this will have be funded somehow. We will all have either accept that in time our news sources will become infested by advertising and corporate sponsorship or be prepared to pay for the high quality journalism that news organisations provide. However with Rupert Murdoch’s vast Sky empire at his behest it’s not impossible to imagine that The Times’ website will mysteriously become the only newspaper site available to Sky Broadband.
Nick Vincent is a senior ecommerce consultant
Ecommerce expert
Ben Dyer
Actinic
Speaking as someone that’s just de-Murdoched my life, I’m fairly sceptical about the plan for a paywall. It’s a huge gamble. In fact, I ask myself whether the number of subscribers paying the £2 weekly subscription will even make up for the lost advertising revenue.
We all know dead tree media is dying; the owners of The Independent had to pay someone to take it off their hands, The Guardian is laying off staff and The Times announced a set of toe-curling financial results. These businesses aren’t just shrinking, they’re being obliterated. I have no idea how many people read The Times online, but they need to try something new.
I don’t consider myself in the target audience, but the few times I do buy a paper I quite enjoy it. There is something romantic about getting newsprint on your fingers. But does that same experience translate online? No, I don’t think so.
Online, I expect to get my content for free. The fundamental cost equation for online publishing is different. Trying to impose a model developed in the print age onto the digital one is gravely misguided.
So will it work? No, I think it’s going to be an absolute failure.
Ben Dyer is director of product development at Actinic
IM specialist
Mickael Remond
ProcessOne
Considering how much MySpace’s stock has fallen since being bought by News International, this is another example of Rupert Murdoch not really understanding how the internet works. Paywalls go against the very ethos of the open internet and history has shown that the most successful web businesses tend to be the ones that can be openly accessed by the most people. To me, this is an admission that The Times isn’t making enough online advertising revenue, rather than an attempt to protect its content.
Mickael Remond is CEO of ProcessOne
Media & PR expert
Tim Gibbon
Elemental Communications
The publishing industry (along with broadcasting) has been experiencing extremely challenging times of late, and the recession is the last thing it needed to intensify the situation. Pagination is lower and advertising is even thinner, so what do you do when an industry is in turmoil and there are wages to be paid?
The argument that users paying for online content means that quality journalists raising their game and providing superior services are admirable. However, it’s a competitive market with many pure-play online publications being profitable, in some circumstances competing head-to-head with traditional broadcasters and publishers with very different appealing models, particularly the free variety.
The move is certainly a bold one, especially as we have been experiencing the ‘free’ and meme culture for the last three years or so. Consumers openly state that they don’t (or won’t) have a problem sourcing similar content elsewhere for free. So we may see the quality, loyalty and familiarity of what is known, even trusted not being a factor high on their agenda.
Only time will tell what such a move by Rupert Murdoch may unfold for the News International Corporation, amongst so many other battles it has to fight regarding content and the digital landscape. Are the price points right, or will they take another look at it and readjust if it’s not having an impact?
Will the content and quality of journalism ring true for this publisher and even improve? This will be quite an important factor in the minds of paying consumers. Can the strong influence human nature be interrupted and a new mindset be introduced, educating the consumer to the benefits of paying for content, and why they should? We’ll have to wait and see how much Murdoch can hold his nerve and market this effectively and the truest test of digital consumer behaviour possibly to be witnessed for a while.
Tim is director of Elemental Communications
Project manager
Ané-Mari Peter
on-IDLE
Murdoch has never been a shrinking violet, but this is a very bold move during a very bad time for the printed press. It can be argued that high quality content cannot remain free (cost of print, cost of running a website), but charging the same for the online content as the printed copy seems at odds with other successful models.
News content has become quite generic due to the number of sources and much as I love The Times, I go through a number of online resources for my daily news fix. Now paying for niche content, such as the FT, I don’t mind one bit, but I want the flexibility of different pay scales for different access levels. Where consumer choice is everything online, Murdoch is going for a one-size-fits-all approach online, which is rather baffling. Perhaps Murdoch wants to drive the paper version of the product as opposed to the digital one?
Unless both titles have real value and content that can be clearly distinguished from other news titles, I can’t see the high readership of the current free online version rushing to subscribe. There’s probably going to be quite a bit of experimentation over the next couple of months on price and access as the current formulaic approach won’t sit well with even the most loyal Times readers, nor casual news browsers. Brand loyalty only goes that far.
Ané-Mari is the co-founder of on-IDLE
Software specialist
Siim Vips
Modera
It’s becoming a global trend to charge for content, and in most cases it’s justified because the costs of creating said content. Only time will tell if Murdoch’s approach will be the successful model which could be the benchmark for the publishing industry, or not. The key is still delivering high levels of quality content, possibly more than the audience has experienced to date and homing in on what journalists do best.
There will most definitely be some publications that will crack it, and it may be the ones that provide the easiest and most effective technical solution for charging consumers.
Siim Vips is founder and CEO of Modera
Hosting specialist
Lawrence Jones
UKFast
As social networking websites continue to dominate internet rankings, community-generated content will supersede the desire for news, making it difficult for any paid-for online news model to succeed.
People want interaction. They’re less concerned with what is going on in the outside world and are more focused on engaging with each other. The internet has enabled users not only to communicate with each other but publish their thoughts to a global audience at the expense of online news providers.
Just as traditional newspapers had to diversify by offering crosswords and supplements, online news providers must therefore do the same. With competition from free news sources such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and the BBC, simply providing news is no longer enough to encourage readers to bypass paywalls.
Ultimately, as the successful Wall Street Journal and Financial Times’ subscription models have shown, building an online community by offering niche content is the only way to monetise news online.
Lawrence Jones is MD of UKFast, a global hosting provider
Marketing expert
David Donnan
MSG
Murdoch has an uncanny knack of attracting “bad” media attention. Yet he has a proven record of implementing highly successful disruptive businesses. Take Sky for instance. When Murdoch launched Sky in 1989, nobody could understand why and even who would pay for TV outside of the already existing TV licence. However, levied by unique and new content, it proved a success, still to this day. For the paywall to be a success, it needs to work in exactly the same way. The Times will need to offer new unique content and open up access to newer services and opportunities, such as its image library. It will be no different to paying for a paper, just the paper is our computer screen. The market opportunity is worth the risk. If Murdoch gets it right, the amount of access to data will create better targeted marketing opportunities to advertisers, offering them a better ROI.
David Donnan is MD of MSG
Payment expert
Jon Prideaux
SecureTrading
People have become used to getting stuff for free. From what I’ve seen The Times has 1.2million daily readers but 20million unique users over the course of a month. The browsers will clearly go away; the big question is whether enough of the regular readers will pay a pound a day, or two pounds a week, for information that they can get elsewhere for free. Even if 95 per cent of people decline the offer, the remaining 5 per cent could generate annual revenues of £60m. I shall watch the experiment with interest.
Jon Prideaux is deputy CEO of SecureTrading
Creative expert
Mark Walls
Neoco
There are always going to be people, journalists and/or bloggers out there providing news for free. The net is at a stage where this UGC is normally better, quicker or more accurate than more considered journalist responses.
This is the nature of the net and why it is such a success. Paywall plans should lead to an increase in quality, as businesses behind them will need to provide higher quality of content and service. If they don’t provide this then I can’t see the business model lasting long.
Mark is co-founder and creative director at Neoco
Marketing guru
Benn Achilleas
Neoco
Yes and no. Walled gardens or iron curtains just do not work on the internet. It’s not about the cost of setting one up it’s about the resources required to maintain it and the sheer will power of people with too much time on their hands looking to gain kudos from pulling it down. Whilst the resources of NI are vast, the amount of people online with time on their hands looking for virtual kudos is more vast. Also, people who want free news will still be able to find it. So, will it be a success and generate revenue? Yes. Is it a sustainable long-term model that will define how people access news? No. But Rupert Murdoch will make lots of money so surely that must be a good thing?
Benn is co-founder and director at Neoco
Project manager
Sascha McLeod
Fortune Cookie
One can’t help but think that any plan to charge cash for content is destined to fail owing to its vulnerability to theft. Copy. Paste. Publish . Voilà – free! Just look at the music industry.
Some will have sympathy for journalists, the future of journalism and the plight of money-losing newspapers. However, getting consumers to put their money where their mouth is will be the greatest challenge.
Consumers will pay if they think they will get greatest value by paying, but only if the process of paying is easy and the content they receive is unique, credible and reasonably priced.
Pay walls implemented by The Economist, Financial Times, and several local UK websites that offer rich, credible, high quality content or ‘long tail’ niche content are working.
But in the case of The Times, a traditional national newspaper, will people really be willing to part with their hard-earned pounds?
I remember this idea being tried, tested, and failing in the recent past (circa 2001), resulting in a publishing industry rethink, with newspapers trying more creative approaches to generate revenue.
Sascha McLeod is project manager of Fortune Cookie
Social media and comms expert
Rachel Hawkes
Elemental Communications
I would be very surprised whether News Corp will be as successful charging for ‘premium content’ as they envisage they will be. I just don’t think Rupert Murdoch has his head around how much digital culture has changed in our society. MySpace. Enough said.
Unquestionably, traditional media has been severely hit, and it’s understandable that someone as old school media as Murdoch will be wanting to hang on to an outdated revenue stream; not really understanding how or why it most likely won’t work.
During a conversation about this, my colleague said to me that he liked the FT iPhone app, but used it just to get the headlines and then went off to read the full story on another (free) news outlet rather than pay to read it via the FT app. This speaks volumes to me. My colleague’s media consumption isn’t unique, either. Behaviour may differ (for example I won’t even check the headlines on the FT as I resent being asked to pay to read about what’s happening in the world).
There is a market for News Corp to generate revenue from this content, but I predict it will primarily be fuelled by ereaders and smartphone apps (and putting a one off fee on the app rather than an ongoing fee on the content). Lending to this prediction is the recent launch of the iPad, which sold 300,000 on the first day in the US alone.
Rachel is account director at Elemental Communications
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Comments
Phil Munro / 28/04/2010 / 15:34
Laughable.
Never going to work.
So totally flawed.
Andy Walpole / 28/04/2010 / 15:44 / http://www.suburban-glory.com/areas/page-one.html
I bet his rivals in the publishing world are in a bind about this. On the one hand they must be hoping that News International falls flat on its face, but on the other they must be secretly hoping that he succeeds so they can then follow his business model!
Berrypoint / 29/04/2010 / 13:23 / http://www.berrypoint.co.uk
As long as there's a free BBC news website, I can't see many paying
