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End of the Internet

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Pete Incaviglia, Jan 29, 2009.

  1. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    Advertisers just don't trust the net yet, for one.

    For two, the number of "unique visitors" or whatever the hell you call it hasn't even begun to approach the number of newspaper subscribers. My paper has a circulation of around 200K ... on a good day, our website will have 75K unique visitors. Can't charge nearly the same ad rates. And our core demographic for newspapers, old people, is dying off ... and young people aren't following them to our websites, because they can get their info off yahoo or google, or not at all.

    For three, the biggest cash cow for newspapers for a long time was the classified section. If you wanted to sell something or buy something or post a job listing in your town, the paper pretty much had a monopoly on that. Now, there's eBay and craigslist and monster.com and all kinds of other options. It's gotten so bad that our paper is killing the classified section two days a week ... which is a bad, bad sign.

    So, yeah, the sky is falling and we're all doomed ... Have a good weekend :)
     
  2. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    A pay site won't cut it. Someone might buy it, but that same person might also copy and paste stories/pics/video to some other Internet forum where people will see it for free. I'm sure you can chase after it with lawyers, but ask the RIAA and MPAA people how that went.

    I think print media companies should abandon the Internet in its current form. What is needed is an alternative information distribution system. Something not related to http. Something that can be controlled much more efficiently.
     
  3. Not the model I'm talking about. Not pay sites. The cable TV model. You pay a flat rate for the basic service, which is then divided among providers. The providers also get to sell and keep their own ad revenues. For premium stuff like HBO - or in this case the NYT or the WP - customers pay slightly more. That's one idea.

    This is another:

    A proprietary electronic reader along the lines of Amazon's Kindle. Another business/technology model that has to be figured out, but why not electronic subscribers?
     
  4. Pete Incaviglia

    Pete Incaviglia Active Member

    I just said this at work the other day. I figure there is going to be a five-year span where newspapers hit rock bottom before the new profitable business model emerges - whether that be abandoning the internet or taking full advantage of it.

    Either way, I think newspapers will still make money and I'll still have a job once this cloud passes.

    As for how to take advantage of and make money on the internet I like the idea of the cable type services or premium fees.

    A newspaper chain needs to align itself with a telecommunications or cable provider and make their content available only through that service.
     
  5. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    Exactly, Waylon. Rivals provides plenty of free content that produces unique visitors and gets people to hang around the site for extended periods. Advertisers like that. But there are also plenty of people that want the premium content and are willing to pay for it.

    News papers could do the same thing with their sites. Give away a headline and a graph or two saying the school board is talking budget cuts or the head coach is going to start the freshman at quarterback. That's enough for a lot of people. But for every two or three of those there's a guy that's going to pay $10 a month to get the transcript of the whole school board meeting or coach's press conference.

    I posted a year or two ago that newspaper companies could learn a lot from ABC and Lost. ABC does a lot across other mediums and platforms to promote and supplement the main product, which is the show. Millions and millions of people turn into the show every week and a significant number of them also go online to get any possible clue to help their understanding of the show.

    They've done a novel that doesn't include any of the main characters from Lost, but offers clues to the overall mystery. They've created Web sites that offer clues that are sponsored by advertisers. But instead of giving people an excuse to turn away from the main product, they are doing things to enhance it and get people more involved with the show.

    And the reason so many people are crazy about the show and will eat up anything related to it? They are telling a great story. The idea that people won't respond to great story telling, even in long form, is just wrong.
     
  6. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    The internet is just to dynamic. There is always going to be someone providing free stuff that at some point would ruin the pay model. Look what happened to AOL
     
  7. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Very true. That is why newspapers if they hope to survive have to eliminate the internet product except for "breaking news."
    We should run a graph or two to satisfy the pride need of "getting it first."
    The newspaper web sites should be advertisements for the print edition and letting people know "ok, we knew about it first, as well."
    I prefer eliminating the Websites altogether, but I would agree to keeping a low budget site to put up short paragraphs of "breaking news."
     
  8. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    "The pride need" of getting it first? It's a fucking NEWSpaper. If you don't break any news -- and rest assured, if newspapers have no Internet presence and rely solely on second-day print editions, they will never break any news outside of major, long-form investigative pieces -- then what's the damn point?
     
  9. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Buck, I am saying go ahead and have a low budget website to get it first. You can run a couple graphs bragging that we know about the new coach first; and give the brief facts; but write it up for the fucking paper. The web is not a successful business model. It just aint.
     
  10. YET, Fredrick. Don't give up on the future just yet.
     
  11. school of old

    school of old New Member

    I've thought of this idea before. It's something that's been tossed around to solve the music industry's woes. I wonder if any industry will ever actually use it?
     
  12. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    that's what my great-grandfather said in 1910. he broke horses for a living.
     
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