News Corp to charge for all news websites

Business Spectator ^ | Aug 6, 2009 | Staff reporter

[upchuck]

Media giant News Corporation Ltd intends to charge for all its news websites in a bid to lift revenues, as the transition towards online media permanently changes the advertising landscape.

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch told analysts in a conference call after News Corp released its full year results that the traditional newspaper business model has to change.

"The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive methods of distribution," Mr Murdoch said.

"But it has not made content free. Accordingly we intend to charge for all our news websites," he said.

He said News Corp would use the Wall Street Journal's online vehicle as a model.

"The extended downturn has only increased the drumbeat for change," he said, arguing that classified advertising for online news would never reach the levels once offered by print.

"Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content, is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting," Mr Murdoch said.

News Corp posted a full year operating profit of $US3.6 billion ($A4.3 billion), down from $US5.3 billion in the previous corresponding period.

The media company's newspaper division weighed on the result, booking an operating profit of $US466 million, down 41 per cent.

"The adjusted operating results primarily reflect lower advertising revenues and the strengthening of the US dollar against the Australian dollar," the company said in a statement.

[omega4179]

Who cares, we got Breitbart etc.

[Obadiah]

If Murdoch does what he did to the Wall Street Journal and plans on charging for access, I’m going to short News Corp.

[Last Dakotan]

Like that is going to work....

[vladimir998]

You’re right.

As much as I like FoxNews (and I don’t have cable either), I won’t pay for it.

[Drago]

Pay up!! Not!!!
http://www.foxnews.com/

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Since FNC is part owned by a 9/11 “Truther” type....has used O’Reilly and Beck to marginalize the Birthers....gives airtime to Jerry Rivers....worked a “truce” between Olbermann and O’Reilly.....should we be surprised that Focks News is moving more and more NY Times leftist....charging for website content?

Of course, this would be huge for WND, Breitbart, and other non-MSM news sites.

FNC and Fox continues its left-ward drift.

[Devils Avocado]

We're currently getting these online news products for free, or very cheap. A model where they actually, you know, make money was inevitable.

[Ron H.]

Not a bad idea but it won’t get off the ground. There are just too many alternative news sites to get ones news. The only way that charging would work is you have something no one else has and the farther left FOX keeps leaning they start to look and feel just like the rest of leftist mob rules non-News sites so why bother.

[BossLady]

"Quality journalism is not cheap"

[angkor]

People **might** (possibly, maybe) pay for a consortium of news sites and viewpoints that are not owned by a single entity like News Corp.

And by “consortium” I mean a package of 50 or 100 or 150 sites (blogs, publications, infozines, video, etc) that offer quality product, quality reporting, quality writing.

You pay one price for a package of cable TV or sat radio offerings, and it should (could?) be no different for “print” media.

Paper distribution has its virtues but those are fast diminishing with the likes of Amazon Kindle. My family TV viewing is probably 75 percent streaming Netflix, and I am increasingly annoyed at having to handle those shiny Netflix disks (aka DVDs) anymore.

[John W]

I don’t even have their web site bookmarked. Its a pos, so, good luck to him.

[max americana]

I agree. MOST of my news comes from FR anyways. It’s got everything from sports, comics, entertainment and news.

[angkor]

>>>> We’re currently getting these online news products for free, or very cheap <<<<

True, but the preposterous NY Times model of offering **only** it’s own news and op-ed is a total loser.

Publishers need to form a consortium of online offerings in exactly the same manner as cable TV networks, and offer their wares as an affordable variety package of reasonably high quality.

I say this as one who helped to launch a few successful Web-based publications from 1994 though 1996 (yes, 1994).

[dr_who]

Might. Might not. I doubt Time Warner and other also rans would have a chance of pulling this off, though.

[mysterio]

Lol, he thinks people are going to pay for Fox News online?

That's funny right there.

I can read plenty of "when celebrities attack" on other yellow journalism blogs.

[catnipman]

Only a moron pays for the WSJ site. All you have to do is access any article from Google and you get the whole article for free. There’s even an addon for Firefox that lets you simulate where you are coming from, and you set it to Google, and then you’re in like Flynn.

The problem for dead-tree publishers (DTPs) is that they can either have a pay site, or an ad-supported site, but not both. Furthermore, either way, the possible online revenues are orders of magnitude below what the DTPs are currently obtaining from both their DT subscribers and advertisers.

Basically, they’re f**ked no matter what they do. And about time too!

[FastCoyote]

Good luck with that business model, Rupert. I’ve been trying for years to get people to pay for things I’ve written that are on the Internet, with didly squat to show for it. I suspect the big boys are getting pinched just as hard.

[Tatze]

The FoxNews.com layout sucks, so I don’t read them anyway. No big deal to me.

[Uncle Hal]

DOA

[Warriormom]

Agree! My hubby and I were just discussing the tabloid quality of the Fox News website this week and agreed that we need a new Home Page.

[steven33442]

Can you imagine people paying the New York Post website? That will be funny.

As for FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness, I don’t use it now when it is free, I certainly won’t be paying for it.

[Comparative Advantage]

The Fox News site looks amateurish quite frankly. They waste too much main page space on celebrity clap trap, too. I use it in lieu of CNN but don’t really like it.

[GAB-1955]

That would include the New York Post and the Times of London. Shoot. I’ll have to start reading the Telegraph more.

[khnyny]

Fox News website sucks.

Good luck with that one.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

I couldn’t even tell you what the Fox News website looks like, and it’s free. What makes him think I’d pay to look at it?

[free_life]

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[PIF]

Fox is owned by a truther - not that one, but Saudia Arabia Inc. who are certain they know the whereabouts of the Jews that destroyed so much of the NYC real estate they owned. They just tell their front man Murdock what areas to include or aviod in reporting the “news”.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

NewsCorp owned Websites:

Fox Interactive Media
AmericanIdol.com
AskMen.com
Fox.com
Foxsports.com
GameSpy
Hulu.com
kSolo
IGN
Drownedinsound.com
MySpace
MyNetworktv.com
NewRoo.com
Strategicdatacorp.com
Photobucket.com
Rotten Tomatoes
Scout.com
SpringWidgets
WhatIfSports
Beliefnet
News Digital Media
Slingshot Labs

NewsCorp Newspapers:

Newspapers

News International

—United Kingdom
The Sun
News of the World
The Times
Sunday Times
thelondonpaper (a free newspaper)

News Limited

—Australia
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney)
The Australian (national)
The Weekend Australian (national)
The Advertiser (Adelaide)
Sunday Mail (Adelaide)
The Sunday Times (Perth)
Herald Sun (Melbourne)
Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne)
mX (Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane)
The Courier-Mail (Brisbane)
The Cairns Post (Cairns, Queensland)
Geelong Advertiser
Gold Coast Bulletin
The Mercury and Sunday Tasmanian (Hobart)
Northern Territory News (Darwin)
The Sunday Territorian (Darwin)
Australian Associated Press (45%)

—New Zealand
Sunday Star-Times

—Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea Post-Courier

—Fiji
The Fiji Times

—United States
New York Post
The Wall Street Journal
Times Herald Record
The Brooklyn Paper
Dow Jones & Company
Consumer Media Group
Wall Street Journal Europe
Wall Street Journal Asia
Barron’s
Marketwatch
Far Eastern Economic Review

Enterprise Media Group
Dow Jones Newswires
Factiva
Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Financial Information Services

Betten Financial News

Local Media Group
Ottaway Community Newspapers

STOXX (33%)
Vedomosti (33%)
SmartMoney (50%)

[catfish1957]

Strategic blunder........ The superior ratings and money for Fox will dry up like Hilary’s face.

[upchuck]

Who cares, we got Breitbart etc.

Being on a dialup line at 49K, I have little use for graphic intense web sites like Fox News. Townhall.com is prolly the worst. Their home page takes nearly three minutes to load. So I never go there.

Murdoch can charge if he wants, won't bother me. Go for it Rupert!

[pvoce]

Why should anyone pay twice for the same content? If anyone has FNC on cable/satellite, why should anyone pay again for the same content just because they’re at work/out of town?

[Obadiah]

Didn’t know that. Thanks for the list.

[ZX12R]

The FoxNews.com layout sucks, so I don’t read them anyway. No big deal to me.

I go there occasionally, but I've always hated their website. It's slow, hangs up, and has too much advertisement loading constantly. Worst one out there, in my opinion. Pay for it? LOL!