USA TODAY COLUMN: It’s not much more than 2½ years since The New York Times took the then-radical step of charging for digital content. Many newspapers followed its lead.
Today, 41% of the nation’s dailies are doing so or are about to, according to media analyst Ken Doctor. No doubt many more will soon be hopping on board…
Charging for digital news — erecting paywalls — is not a panacea for the many problems newspapers face as they struggle to adapt in the Internet era. But it’s an important arrow in the quiver. It’s a critical new source of revenue for news outlets that desperately need them in the wake of a steep decline in ad dollars… (more)
EDITOR: It is also good news for readership and for the environment. Democracy requires the reporting of news. Charges for Internet access are relatively small compared to newspaper delivery. “Woodsman, spare the tree.”
Charging for digital news is disappointing for the public and dangerous for the newspapers.
The public is already paying far more than ever for news content in the form of cable TV and internet access fees. If anything, digital newspapers should be totally free for several reasons. First they no longer have the enormous cost of paper, printing, and delivery (which the subscribers covered with their fees). Second, they still potentially have all the real income of advertising, if they can properly figure out how to harness it. And finally, the competition is much too intense to charge for news media.
Even if every newspaper in the country charged an access fee, the broadcast and cable TV companies can squeeze extra money from their content by putting it on the internet with free access.
The newspapers clearly missed the boat when they let the internet steal away their advertisers. That’s where the real money is and now that the genie’s out of the bottle they’re going to blow it again by driving away the readers that make advertising value.
I’m sure it would have blown their minds to consider it, but the newspapers probably should have provided free internet access to build an electronic reader base.