Thursday, August 20, 2009
Can Rupert be a successful King Canute?
So, no doubt under pressure from News International shareholders (see also the decision to close thelondonpaper), Rupert Murdoch has decided that the dominant “free to the web” web publishing model has to go.
Financially you can see why — the only people making anything of note from web publishing are providers of specialist info (the FT, Wall Street Journal, The Economist etc). Everyone else, if you believe it’s all about cannibalisation of print sales, has given away potential pounds in revenue for actual pence from not enough clicks.
The problem is, of course, that, by now anyone who gets their news on the web expects it free. And there are lots of alternative sources other than his outlets. So he has to get them to co-operate in a perfect example of Prisoner’s Dilemma from game theory.
But even if he can get all the other traditional media companies to do just that, there are still countless other sources of basic, commodity news. And why should they join King Canute in trying to order back the sea?
Rupert’s a smart operator (probably the smartest), so he knows that.
What you can get people to pay for, as those doing ok so far know, is unique, high-value content. So think exclusive, web-only, multimedia stuff his readers REALLY want. Add in a truly convenient micro-payment or free-then-firewall system like that at the FT (to allow sampling before you pay) and you could have a money-making machine, given the popularity of his titles in their print formats.
Good luck Rupe!
Financially you can see why — the only people making anything of note from web publishing are providers of specialist info (the FT, Wall Street Journal, The Economist etc). Everyone else, if you believe it’s all about cannibalisation of print sales, has given away potential pounds in revenue for actual pence from not enough clicks.
The problem is, of course, that, by now anyone who gets their news on the web expects it free. And there are lots of alternative sources other than his outlets. So he has to get them to co-operate in a perfect example of Prisoner’s Dilemma from game theory.
But even if he can get all the other traditional media companies to do just that, there are still countless other sources of basic, commodity news. And why should they join King Canute in trying to order back the sea?
Rupert’s a smart operator (probably the smartest), so he knows that.
What you can get people to pay for, as those doing ok so far know, is unique, high-value content. So think exclusive, web-only, multimedia stuff his readers REALLY want. Add in a truly convenient micro-payment or free-then-firewall system like that at the FT (to allow sampling before you pay) and you could have a money-making machine, given the popularity of his titles in their print formats.
Good luck Rupe!
Labels: News International, newspapers. strategy, Rupert Murdoch
