Comments on: When is paid content successful? http://www.lanniebyrd.com/2009/08/28/when-is-paid-content-successful/ Converged media notes Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:49:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Wilson Kanaday http://www.lanniebyrd.com/2009/08/28/when-is-paid-content-successful/comment-page-1/#comment-243 Wilson Kanaday Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:59:22 +0000 http://lanniebyrd.com/?p=605#comment-243 Fair enough. But here is the problem with the paid model overall and print in particular. News is a commodity. KATV, THV, Fox16 and the DemGaz all have the same news - they may argue they don't but my consumer perception is more important than their producer reality. So if one of them is going to make me pay then I simply won't go there - hence the reason I never go to the DemGaz website. And the print business model couldn't have more wrong with it. In my 30s and very busy with family and business it better be pretty captivating content for me to sit down with a piece of paper and read it. I have the NY Times on my phone and I don't even find time to read it. If I was a newspaper I would do this - scale down to the smallest coverage area possible; Otter Creek for example. People in Otter Creek may really care about Otter Creek. Further, if it is quality journalism (read between the lines there) then they can take the time to develop a really good story. Otherwise they are competing with the Cable & Internet News Juggernauts. So this is when journalists cry out, "But there isn't enough news to support all of us with that model." Yeah, no kidding. Industries come and go - the horse and buggy, textiles, etc.... Now it is newspapers' turn. Fair enough. But here is the problem with the paid model overall and print in particular. News is a commodity. KATV, THV, Fox16 and the DemGaz all have the same news – they may argue they don’t but my consumer perception is more important than their producer reality.

So if one of them is going to make me pay then I simply won’t go there – hence the reason I never go to the DemGaz website.

And the print business model couldn’t have more wrong with it. In my 30s and very busy with family and business it better be pretty captivating content for me to sit down with a piece of paper and read it. I have the NY Times on my phone and I don’t even find time to read it.

If I was a newspaper I would do this – scale down to the smallest coverage area possible; Otter Creek for example. People in Otter Creek may really care about Otter Creek. Further, if it is quality journalism (read between the lines there) then they can take the time to develop a really good story. Otherwise they are competing with the Cable & Internet News Juggernauts.

So this is when journalists cry out, “But there isn’t enough news to support all of us with that model.” Yeah, no kidding. Industries come and go – the horse and buggy, textiles, etc…. Now it is newspapers’ turn.

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