The Decline of Print media: Blame free access
Is the long-term future of the journalism profession in question? Not necessarily. Survival will depend on putting some muscle behind the concept of breaking out of captivity from the print style only. Getting users to pay for news provided on the Internet will be the key. This idea of paying for content on the Internet is not without precedent. The majority of Internet-generated money (mostly from advertising) has ended up flowing to groups that do not actually generate much content but instead capitalize on it: search engines and Internet providers. YouTube and Google's video-sharing sites have reaped enormous benefits from the online video audience.
No, I'm not rich, and I realize this won't be a popular path to take among current and potential readers. But as long as articles remain available online for free, people will not pay money to read them. Which means that the creativity and effort of journalists will go unrewarded, a fact already evident with the plunging profits, increasing staff layoffs and frequently filed bankruptcies of newspapers even as the number of online readers continues to climb. Today's aspiring journalist might decide tomorrow that a career in writing is not financially viable and opt to become an investment banker instead, a move that will not bode well for the future of the journalism profession. If content can be provided on the Internet or on a device in such a way that people will prefer it over reading on paper, people will pay. Some people will balk now, but if content is cheap and easily accessible, most people will pay. Charging people for articles will also force journalists to value content and therefore strive to produce high-quality writing to maintain their audience.
If the day when readers pay a nickel for a news article is not easy to envision, look to the iPod. It was Apple who first understood the appeal of a truly great piece of technology. After Steve Jobs created the iPod and linked it to the iTunes Music Store, people started paying for songs again, at a time when free downloading was at its peak and CD music sales were dwindling. To date, Apple has sold more than billion songs on iTunes. Perhaps the newspaper and magazine industry can replicate the success of the iPod.
I'm suggesting this idea because journalism is important, and people still want to hear the news. Newspapers are trusted sources of information, guardians of the free marketplace of ideas, and they cover local events in a way that national news organizations cannot.
No, I'm not rich, and I realize this won't be a popular path to take among current and potential readers. But as long as articles remain available online for free, people will not pay money to read them. Which means that the creativity and effort of journalists will go unrewarded, a fact already evident with the plunging profits, increasing staff layoffs and frequently filed bankruptcies of newspapers even as the number of online readers continues to climb. Today's aspiring journalist might decide tomorrow that a career in writing is not financially viable and opt to become an investment banker instead, a move that will not bode well for the future of the journalism profession. If content can be provided on the Internet or on a device in such a way that people will prefer it over reading on paper, people will pay. Some people will balk now, but if content is cheap and easily accessible, most people will pay. Charging people for articles will also force journalists to value content and therefore strive to produce high-quality writing to maintain their audience.
If the day when readers pay a nickel for a news article is not easy to envision, look to the iPod. It was Apple who first understood the appeal of a truly great piece of technology. After Steve Jobs created the iPod and linked it to the iTunes Music Store, people started paying for songs again, at a time when free downloading was at its peak and CD music sales were dwindling. To date, Apple has sold more than billion songs on iTunes. Perhaps the newspaper and magazine industry can replicate the success of the iPod.
I'm suggesting this idea because journalism is important, and people still want to hear the news. Newspapers are trusted sources of information, guardians of the free marketplace of ideas, and they cover local events in a way that national news organizations cannot.
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Bobby
posted 8/07/09 @ 2:40 PM EST
It may be also who has time to read and of course who wants to tan pay for it? And the mountains of sources as well. And now different people own various sources of the media so who can you trust to write the truth?
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