Take note of the fact that The Globe and Mail attempts to charge $4.95* for the Jim Stanford editorial that I just blogged about.
That same editorial is available online for no charge from Stockhouse.com (to whom I linked so that you could read the full article), and via a Google search, at least a couple of dozen new media aggregator sites. You have to wonder how well the plan of charging for individual content is going in the face of new media outlets that present greater value, and generate revenue differently.
There is a lesson there, but I don't really expect newspapers, plodding 19th century business models that they are, to catch on any time soon.
Recently, an attorney in a copyright suit was quoted as saying that "Getting a picture back once it is posted on the internet is like peeing in a swimming pool, and trying to get the pee back." It's as true about any kind of data as it is about embarrassing photos. That pretty much sums up the futility of trying to keep your content behind a gate.
But I'm part of the new media, so what do I know?
*One of Mankiw's rules of econmomics is that "The cost of something is what you give up to get it." Personally, I'm not willing to give up the current bi-weekly edition of Canadian Business Magazine in exchange for 727 words that I already have on hard copy clipped out of the print edition, just so I can cut and paste excerpts into my blog. Maybe the Globe needs to hire more economists.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Newsflash: Globe & Mail, Rest of Old Media Still Don't Get It
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1 comment:
The "walls" are partly the product of a desire by the old media to make some additional money from the new media format. Another component in the construction of these walls is the contract the old media has with individual writers, most particularly those who are not on staff. Lawsuits launched by freelance writers, and demands from both staff and freelance writers for additional recompense if a piece of writing is published beyond the borders of an individual newspaper, play an important role in the decision to put an article behind a wall.
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