Tag media

Times Online tells staff its paywall nearing rollout. Roll up for trials.

0 comments By Andy Soloman Filed in Uncategorized Tagged with Chief executive officer, journalism, media, news, news international, newspapers, online revenue, paywall, Rebekah Brooks, subscribers, Sunday Times, the times, Times Online March 18th, 2010 @ 7:30 pm

So here it comes. The Times Online paywall is set to be launched. Thanks to our friends at paidContent:UK for Stephen Brook’s posting today that reported News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks told staff that readers registered with Times Online will be invited to register for an “exclusive preview of the new digital proposition” this week.

Let me not just repeat Brook’s posting. Go over and have a look for yourself. However, I will repeat the memo reportedly sent to News International staff today, and which will be distributed to Times Online registered users.

FAIR PRICING FOR DIGITAL CONTENT

Message from Rebekah Brooks
Those of you that subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times or have registered on Times Online will receive a communication starting from this week inviting you to register for an exclusive preview of the new digital proposition. This shows that we are getting closer to the launch of the titles’ new digital sites.
I have made no secret of our intention to start charging for quality journalism online. As you may have seen speculation in the media about our plans, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know why we believe this is such an important development.
We are committed to producing quality journalism that is written by professionals with a profound understanding of their subject and a commitment to provide well-informed coverage of the issues. Each of our titles, in its own way, has pioneered quality, professional journalism and we are unashamed to say we believe it has value.
In contrast, the industry is making the mistake of chasing millions of unique users by giving the audience more and more content for free. An obsession with traffic just doesn’t pay.

Great journalism needs investment and we are committed to supporting the fantastic work that you are all producing and delivering to our audiences. It is the quality of the journalism that you create, and the ways in which we produce and distribute it, that will continue to set our titles apart from the competition.
And to be clear, when we talk about charging for our content online, we are talking about charging a fair price. Price alone will not be a barrier to take up. Of course, we expect to see the numbers of unique users of our sites come down dramatically. But the people who register to our new digital products will be customers who have made a positive decision to pay a fair price for journalism that they value, and they will be those who are more committed to and engaged with our titles.
This is an exciting development for our company especially as we will be among the first in the world to take this step. There are many who declare we have set ourselves an impossible task. But our company loves nothing more than challenging the status quo.
Shortly I will update you on our plans in more detail. But, in the meantime, I believe that with the combined force of your talent, commitment and hard work, we will, in the months and years to come, define a new future in the way we create, deliver and profit from our journalism.
Rebekah Brooks
Chief Executive, News International

News International puts its cards on the table (technokitten.blogspot.com)
All hail Rupert Murdoch. Without his money, there would be no good Times (guardian.co.uk)
Times picks senior team for paywall push (guardian.co.uk)

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The New York Times in high stakes plans to charge online. Draconian, desperate or inspired?

0 comments By Andy Soloman Filed in Uncategorized, journalism, news, newspapers, online revenue Tagged with Add new tag, advertising, Business, felix salmon, freemium, International Herald Tribune, media, New York Times, Newspaper, newspapers, NYT, online revenue, publishing, Reuters, twitter January 21st, 2010 @ 2:06 pm

New York Times to charge for online access from 2011. Photo: Andy Soloman

Has the bullet been bitten? Or is the bullet winging its way to the heart of its mark?

The announcement by top US newspaper, The New York Times, that starting January 2011 it will charge frequent users of its website has either been heralded by underfire newspaper execs, or derided as a desperate measure that will hasten the venerable institution’s demise.

The NYT‘s David Carr, in the Times’ Media Decoder blog, said the move represented a hedge.

People who remain reflexively bullish on free [content] ignore the fact that the clock is ticking on many of the legacy businesses that produce that content. The new approach is an effort to replace that ticking clock with a meter, and its success is not assured but to sit still would be dumb.

It is not the job of The New York Times or any other mainstream media company to give away its content until it can no longer afford to do so.

The charging plans appear fairly draconian. From next January visitors will be able to view a few articles free each month, but step over the threshold and they will be required to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the daily or Sunday print editions will continue to receive full access.

The NYT has yet to say how much it intends to charge, or how many articles will remain free each month.

Newspapers have been grappling with plummeting circulations and advertising revenues. Readers have increasingly turned away from being brand loyal to being increasingly varied in choosing how they access their general news. The Internet, RSS feeds or news aggregators are able to through up numerous sources to information on any particular news story.

Yes, gathering news is an expensive business, but increasingly readers have been opting for free services to keep up with developments. As circulations decline, so advertisers look elsewhere. It’s worth noting that the the New York Times Company, which also includes the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers, saw advertising revenue plunge 30% in the first nine months of 2009.

No doubt, this is a brave move by the NYT, but with technology, reader behaviour and news sources exploding by the month (think Twitter and other social networks, think of the boom in citizen journalism, and think cost) it is hard to see whether come next January the NYT is part of a crowd rushing to harvest online dollars or whether it finds itself back tracking as the “loyal” online readers it wants to monetise dessert it for somewhere else.

As Reuters media reporter Felix Salmon wrote (and which was reported in the NYT):

Successful media companies go after audience first, and then watch revenues follow; failing ones alienate their audience in an attempt to maximize short-term revenues.”

So, is the NYT going to charge into battle only to find its followers have quietly disappeared? Will its brazen war cry fade into a garbled mumble? Or has it struck gold? My take is that it is not enough for legacy newspaper businesses to think they can easily transfer the model into a successful online business. They need to find ways to serve up the exclusive essential information that people will be willing to pay for.

This isn’t the first time the NYT has charged for acces. Back in the 1990s it charged overseas readers and then again a few years ago it tried another scheme to charge poeple for reading the op-ed columns. Both failed to gain any significant traction and were dropped.

The New York Times Announces Plans for a Metered Model for NYTimes.com in 2011 (eon.businesswire.com)
The NYT’s paywall (blogs.reuters.com)
New York Times to charge online readers (guardian.co.uk)

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eBay founder Pierre Omidyar dropping Twitter project for local news service

0 comments By Andy Soloman Filed in Uncategorized, blogging, journalism, news, newspapers, online revenue, publishing, twitter Tagged with Business, EBay, editor, Ginx, Hawaii, Honolulu, Howard Weaver, journalism, local news, media, news, Newspaper, Peer News, Pierre Omidyar, publishing, randy Ching, twitter November 19th, 2009 @ 12:48 pm

: Pierre Omidyar, Image via CrunchBase

Billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has announced that he’s abandoning Ginx, his Twitter client project, in favour of developing a new online local news service in Hawaii where he lives.

Peer News, founded by Omidyar and fellow eBay stalwart Randy Ching in 2008, has advertised via Twitter for an editor and in a blog posting Omidyar said a lot of effort was now going into building the new service.

We have a lot of work to do before our public launch in early 2010. We’re focused on building a really talented team here in Honolulu. For our Ginx users, we’re sorry to let you know that we’ll be shutting down the service at the end of 2009. We learned a lot and greatly appreciate all the interaction and feedback from you over the past year. We’re huge fans of Twitter, so you will still see us online, but we want our developers focused on the new organization and news service.

Omidyar (@pierre on Twitter) said he had been interested in news for some time and that Peer News was founded with the goal of:

empowering citizens and encouraging greater civic participation through media. We believe that a strong democracy requires an engaged society supported by effective news reporting and analysis. And, we believe that this can be done in a profitable, sustainable way.

So if you fancy applying to be the editor based in Honolulu, the details can be found here. Prospective candidates need to offer answers to two key questions impacting news today.

In 100 words or less, when did you first realise that the Web was going to change journalism forever?
In 100 words or less, what advice would you give the news industry?

News veteran Howard Weaver has been advising the Peer News team, and in a blog posting entitled “Looking toward one future for local civic journalism” he said:

The new venture intends to demonstrate that a digitally native, technologically fluent web organisation can profitably serve targeted readers who want sophisticated journalism focused on local civic affairs.

Local and regional newspapers have been hugely impacted in the crisis affecting journalism and changing reader and advertiser habits. Local publications have been closing in their scores as revenues and circulations plummet. The loss of a local newspaper closes a prime avenue for local accountability and democracy. It is a subject of heated debate, and stressed out newspaper executives will be watching Omidyar very closely to see if he can generate profits from online local news.

VIDEO — Socialnomics presents compelling evidence of the power of Social Media

1 comment By Andy Soloman Filed in Uncategorized, media, online revenue, social media, social networks, video Tagged with Erik Qualman, media, social media, social network, socialnomics, video, youtube November 18th, 2009 @ 11:48 am

If you needed any convincing, this latest video “Social Media ROI: Socialnomics” by Socialnomics author Erik Qualman paints a convincing case. Memo to all companies and businesses everywhere: Ignore at your peril.

As Qualman says on his Socialnomics – Social Media Blog:

This article and video have been put together with the hopes of it being a viable tool for those with a vision to get those seated in the back row to stand up and see the social media light.

The latest offering is packed full of bold stats, so I’d advise some degree of caution in blindly accepting the detail. However, what cannot be disputed is social media isn’t just flexing its muscles, it is fast becoming the most powerful technological revolution to sweep the globe. It is critical for the power of the social media discontinuity to be fully understood. Those that do will prosper.

The video follows on from Qualman’s hugely successful YouTube video from a few months ago called “Socialnomics: Social Media Revolution” which has over million views.

If you haven’t seen it (and it is essential viewing), you can find the original within my posting “What Grandma didn’t say: Social Media is here to stay” or here is the alternative shorter version:

30+ Impressive Social Media Stats Visualized [Video] (mashable.com)
Social Media in Search: User-Created Content Dominates the Brand Message [Stats] (mashable.com)

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AWARDS — Megas — MediaGuardian Innovation Awards 2010 open for entries

1 comment By Andy Soloman Filed in Uncategorized, events, media, online revenue Tagged with awards, innovation, media, media guardian, megas, online revenue November 2nd, 2009 @ 6:08 pm

UK national daily The Guardian has opened its call for entries for its third annual MediaGuardian Innovation Awards, or Megas as they are modestly known.

The awards aim to recognise the best in innovation at a time when the media industry is experiencing dramatic shifts in reader or consumer behaviour and the emergence of radically different revenue and business models.

The Megas will reward innovation across 13 categories, with a top “MediaGuardian Innovator of the Year” award going to the person judged to have had the greatest impact on media innovation over the past year.

Full list of categories (and links to the details):

Launch – The most innovative launch
PR – The most innovative buzz creation
Advertising – The most innovative advertising work
Creative – The most creative, pioneering design work
Technology – The creation or application of a new technology to make a real improvement in delivery rather than just as a gimmick
Use of web platforms – The use of existing tools and data services to create new and exciting experiences for people on the Internet
Applications – The most innovative apps
Business model – An outstanding example of an innovative approach to charging (or not charging) for content
Startup – The best new companies registered between December 2008 and December 2009 that demonstrate a truly innovative concept which has potential to shake up the media world.
Community engagement – Companies which have extended their reach by creating a community to engage their audience
Campaigning – The most innovative methods of galvanising public support for the greater good. Entries open to public or charity sector organisations
Gadget – This category will reward phones, MP3 players, audio and reading devices which are innovative in their technology, design and usability.
Independent media – open to non corporate sector companies or individuals which demonstrate the power to influence policy, push boundaries and make history rather than just reporting it
MediaGuardian Innovator of the Year – The media figure judged to have had the greatest impact on innovation in the media in the past year

All work submitted must have appeared for the first time between 31 October 2008 and 5 December 2009. Entries must be submitted by 4 December and the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London in March 2010.

A full list of last year’s winners can be found here. Follow the awards on Twitter on @guardianmegas

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EVENT — paidContent:UK London mixer, 20 October 2010

0 comments By Andy Soloman Filed in Uncategorized, events Tagged with disney, event, ie:music, media, paidcontent:uk, playfish, spotify October 2nd, 2009 @ 12:05 pm

I’ll be attending the paidContent:UK mixer on Oct 20 in London. Rob Andrews writes:

The event takes place at Edelman’s HQ in London’s Victoria (105 Victoria Street, SW1E 6QT), with refreshments starting at 5.30pm.

This is an opportunity for readers to network with fellow digital media decision makers, put your questions to an expert panel and to help influence the UK government’s digital media policy. Places are limited. Hope to see you there…

For this event, we are partnering with C&binet, the creativity and business international network created by the government’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport over October 26 to 28 to foster international dialogue about the creative economy.

The inaugural C&binet forum, which sees the department invite leaders from global media and business to generate an international dialogue on the creative economy, will be held a week later. Views heard at our mixer will be aired during the forum, at which I will be moderating a panel with Spotify’s UK MD, Disney’s EMEA VP, Playfish’s CEO and IE:Music’s co-founder Tim Clark.