Thursday, May 27, 2010
Rupert’s paywall U-turn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/may/27/rupert-murdoch-paywalls
The logic of what Gapper and Roy say is undeniable — for the paywall to work it has to show its value and to do that it has to have a more focused approach on exclusive content and analysis, just like The Economist and the FT.
As for this being an ideological U-turn by Murdoch, I’m not so sure.
What motivated his desire to broaden the appeal of his broadsheets? Making them pay. Narrowing their appeal to make the paywalls work is ultimately about the same thing.
Don’t forget he only turned around on the idea of giving content away for free on his websites when the basic business models of his newspapers got into trouble. Until then he was happy for the websites to be loss-making. It’s only now that the core advertising model of print has hit a terminal decline has he sought to earn money from the websites in a more focussed manner.
Will Rupert be unhappy? I don’t think so. At the end of the day I’m sure he’s a pragmatist and if it keeps his shareholders happy…
Labels: newspaper Rupert Murdoch paywalls
