Monday 1 February 2010

Free vs pay

News that the New York Times will be charging for online content sent The Resident's Lori Harfenist to the streets of the Big Apple for a people poll.

It was largely thumbs down for paying for online news, with "so much free news out there."

As one woman says: "No way. We don't have to pay for anything online."

You said it, lady.

Online fees for news will be a hard sell if most mainstream media do not follow the Times and put an end to open access to content.

Take note of the support for print media in the street poll.

3 comments:

  1. People will pay for compelling and unique content. I'd suggest the people who won't pay aren't buying the NYT in the first place or for that matter the Wall St. Journal.

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  2. when the mainstream media gets smart and starts enforcing copywrite on the material they own, then you won't find so much quality 'free' news online, many of the so called 'news' sites are stealing the content and will be empty save for 'citizen' journalism

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  3. maybe it's a combination of quality and quantity. Newspapers give away ALL of their content. If you only tease the reader and make it valuable, they will buy it. Let's face it if you put a value of nothing...what is it worth?

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