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Open Categories Menu Hussman omits obvious point to make argument
- 8 May, 2007 -
- Convergence, Journalism, Online Media -
- Tags : Convergence, Journalism, Newspapers, Online Media
- 1 Comment
The publisher of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette recently wrote an opinion piece promoting the lack of dramatic circulation losses at the Democrat-Gazette as a result of requiring a paid subscription to view the news stories online. This opinion piece also appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The obvious problem with his argument is that he is comparing a backwards state like Arkansas with lowest broadband Internet adoption rates in the country and the lowest per capita home Internet connection rates in the country to the rest of the nation.
All newspaper subscriptions have ever done is pay for delivery– and in some markets not even that. Now that the newspaper reader is paying the Internet charge, the delivery cost for an online newspaper have almost eliminated themselves.
UPDATE: Techdirt points out another flaw in Hussman’s logic: the Democrat-Gazette is still losing circulation, just not losing it as fast as other similar newspapers. Losing circulation means lost revenue.
UPDATE 2: Howard Owens joins in with a well-thought out post on his blog encouraging the transition to “audience platforms” where the primary focus is on understanding the needs and interests of a specific audience segment and using that understanding to help audience members increase their “return on attention.”
[...] content will not save newspapers. Despite what many old journalism hands have said (including pay wall poster child Little Rock’s own Walter Hussman). Paid content limits your audience size and audience growth [...]