So when will paying for online news be the status quo?

[JEDI]

Warren Buffet has bought a number of newspapers/magazines w/an online presence.

he's says news sites financed with ads is unsustainable and he's betting that people will pay for online news.

when do u think paying for online news will be the status quo instead of exception to the rule?

for me, as long as cnn.com is free, i dont think paying for news will ever be the status quo.

 

[Number1]

Up here they have all gone paywall except for the CBC.

 

[lxskllr]

It costs money for quality journalism, and once the final stake has been driven through printed paper's heart, it'll cost to get news online. There will always be free options, but if you want the best, you'll have to pay. I don't have a problem that.

 

[JEDI]

Up here they have all gone paywall except for the CBC.

cnn doesn't have a Canada version?

edit:
guess not. they have a International and Mexico version, but no Canada

 

[Spineshank]

My former local paper is now mostly pay for articles.

 

[Number1]

cnn doesn't have a Canada version?

edit:
guess not. they have a International and Mexico version, but no Canada

I was talking about Canadian news broadcaster and newspapers.
I used to check NBC once in a while but since they changed the format, it's just a bloody mess so I gave up.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

I don't pay for online news yet but probably will start in the near future.

The quality of free news online has really plummeted in the past 10 years. It used to be you could click on a link and read a fairly lengthy text article of substance. Now you either get a 4 sentence article that really says nothing beyond the headline or have to watch a 30 second commercial to see a crap 20 second video. For news, I would always prefer reading a real article with maybe a picture or two.

 

[PastTense]

I think you will always be able to get national and international news for free--there are too many sources for it.

But local news you will have to pay for: since there are very, very few suppliers of news for any particular locality.

 

[techs]

It's quite easy to copy and paste news article currently. So, it will take some major security to prevent sites from just copying the pay sites and posting the news on their site.

Also, can't you in effect say stuff like CNN is reporting that blah, blah, blah, without any copyright violations? They do that now and I haven't seen any news site suing.

 

[nickbits]

The local paper of my old city put a HTML light box div on top of their articles once you open more than 3/Month. CSS filter takes care of that lol. I'd rather not read it than pay.

 

[mmntech]

I just stopped reading the local news because most of it is rubbish. They're still running around with their huge Rob Ford boner. I just went elsewhere to find my information.

The problem with the media industry today is their steadfast resistance to change. It stems from all the media consolidation back in the 90s, when all the independents were bought up. The big boys had little reason to innovate to compete, since they now owned all the competition. Then the web came along and started gobbling up the advertising dollars. However, the big media outlets never really figured out how to properly monetize it.

The paywalls are just trying to plug a leaky dam with a piece of gum. It might hold it off, but the day of reckoning is going to come sooner or later. However, people aren't going to pay for content that they previously got for free. Not unless it's significantly better. Especially since we've spent two decades at the all you can eat web buffet. Now they've got sites like Twitter, where news is instant, or Huffington Post. They just don't know how to respond to actual competition.

I work for a traditional cablecaster who actually is making money strictly off advertising. We've expanded our web reach dramatically, and it's paying off with decent growth. We're one of the most influential brands in the country as well, ahead of all the big boys. So it can be done if you bother investing in the right places rather than using stop gap measures.

In the end, it's the content that matters. The same old crap doesn't fly anymore.

 

[who?]

Canada is international.

 

[Imp]

It's quite easy to copy and paste news article currently. So, it will take some major security to prevent sites from just copying the pay sites and posting the news on their site.

Three major newspapers in Canada have all gone with the pay wall model except their security is either incredibly stupid or it's designed that way to maintain traffic. Long story short, you're supposed to only get around 10 free articles per month without subscribing, but the restriction is so easy to bypass it's not funny. It's not even a bypass because the security revolves around basic browser settings or browsing habits.

Maybe they want the free add money and don't want to turn away the non-paying completely -- those ad impressions/clicks still count for something. Only some subscriber only articles exist on those sites.

On a general note, if all the papers to set up a proper pay wall, my guess is that there will always be some cheap news site available. And I wouldn't miss the some papers too much because they are in bed with their advertisers -- the constant real-estate and MBA school pumping is sad.