Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Thu, Aug 06 2009
New (old) news model for News Corp.?
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.'s company can certainly institute subscription (or other) charges for all their news. It's not illegal. And it's actually very tradtional. But is it timely and prudent? I don't know. We now live in a time when people in the middle of a news event are just as likely to tweet, text or use digital video to be their own news service. Citizen journalism is sometimes sppedier and more accurate than news that comes from respected news feeds. If News Corp. had caught the wave a few years ago they might have been able to ride it for awhile. But they may have waited too long now to really get people to (literally) buy the idea that's it's worth the price of a subscription to have someone else present and filter the news. Are there news outlets online that I'd pay to view? Possibly. But they'd be either niche news markets or very local news markets. And the way people love to gossip, it wouldn't be long before other folks figured out how to filter and present both those markets to others for no charge. For now, I'm just watching all this with curiosity. I will say this. News Corp. made some buzz. Making the news is at least as important as breaking the news.
posted at: 08:01 | category: /Arts and Entertainment | link to this entry
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.'s company can certainly institute subscription (or other) charges for all their news. It's not illegal. And it's actually very tradtional. But is it timely and prudent? I don't know. We now live in a time when people in the middle of a news event are just as likely to tweet, text or use digital video to be their own news service. Citizen journalism is sometimes sppedier and more accurate than news that comes from respected news feeds. If News Corp. had caught the wave a few years ago they might have been able to ride it for awhile. But they may have waited too long now to really get people to (literally) buy the idea that's it's worth the price of a subscription to have someone else present and filter the news. Are there news outlets online that I'd pay to view? Possibly. But they'd be either niche news markets or very local news markets. And the way people love to gossip, it wouldn't be long before other folks figured out how to filter and present both those markets to others for no charge. For now, I'm just watching all this with curiosity. I will say this. News Corp. made some buzz. Making the news is at least as important as breaking the news.
posted at: 08:01 | category: /Arts and Entertainment | link to this entry
