Wall Street and the automobile industry are not the only things failing in America right now. Many newspapers have closed, been bought out or filed for bankruptcy. In Connecticut, a lawmaker is lobbying for the state government to offer two local newspapers a bailout plan to save their business. During these tough economical times many undergraduate students studying journalism must be wondering what they are going to do after their graduation date. I think it is time that the younger faces of journalism restructure the business model used in most news organizations across the country.
It is obvious that subscriptions at most newspapers are dwindling. Two Detroit daily newspapers, The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, announced in December that they would only have home deliveries Thursday, Friday and Sunday. They have seen a large drop in subscription this year and this is the best option for the company if it wants to stay afloat. There will still be daily news updates on both websites that anyone can access for free. They will also offer a smaller edition of each daily paper for individual sale.
Free is where to problem begins. It is not a problem just in Detroit but all over the country. Why would people want pay to a print copy of a newspaper when they can access it online for free? Even better, why get a print copy when you can sift through the stories online without having to awkwardly fumble from the front page to page D 16 to get the rest of the story? In my opinion it is time to rethink online journalism. The Wall Street Journal makes people pay to view the entire paper. Maybe other organization should consider doing the same thing.
This sounds like a good idea to me. When newspapers started, people paid to read the news. It might have only been three cents a day, but it was still paid for. Why is it that with the creation of the internet people think they should get the news for free? Just because online stories are available does not mean the people working to put the stories online do not need a pay check!
I know, most people will argue that they do not want to have to go through the hassle of creating an account just to log-on every time they want to read the paper; but let’s be serious, everyone logs on to something on a regular basis. And now, most computers, blackberries and iphones save all your passwords anyway so it goes directly to the secured location.
So why not have an account directly connected to a credit card or a checking account that charges a 75 cent fee each day you log on? Or the organization could offer choices. Either pay the daily fee or get a subscription to cut the cost drastically if a person reads the paper daily. It is the same idea that started the print subscription. A person can buy a paper each day or they can get one delivered each day at a much cheaper cost. If news organizations decide to do this, maybe they will start making money from subscriptions and sales again instead of relying mostly on online advertisements.
Links
Connecticut bail out http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,475046,00.html
Detroit Free Press http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/18288845/detail.html
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Good find Kathy on the Connecticut bailout piece. I haven't heard that one and thought of government bailing out newspapers is just plain scary to me. How are we to be watchdogs over the same people paying our salary? Obviously, that's a horrible idea.
ReplyDeleteYour insight into charging for online access is brilliant, unfortunately I think it's too late for that. News organizations made a mistake when the decided to offer online content for free, and it's too late to turn back the clock. People have been receiving it for free for too long to be willing to pay.
Another idea is to drastically restructure the industry, setting up nonprofits organizations instead of corporate ownership of newspapers. This will at least reduce the demand for profit. It works in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Poynter owns the St. Petersburg Times).
Once you give people something for free, they'll never agree to pay for it. So, since we're are past that point, in my opinion, newspapers must find new ways to advertise and increase revenue. For instance, mobile news is the wave of the future and already several news services have news applications for the iPhone. Included in the app, are banner ads. This could potentially be a good source of income in the future.
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