<i>This is a guest advertise from regular commenter, <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/profile.php?u=imafish”>Ima Fish</a>, and is <a href=”http://logictortured.com/blog/2010/07/23/2398/” target=”_blank”>cross posted</a> from his own blog:</i>
<br /><br />
Marion Maneker over at the Huge Money website wrote a piece entitled “<a href=”http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/goodnight-gutenberg/2010/07/23/weird-logic-paywall-opponents” id=”f7bx” title=”The Weird Logic of Paywall Challengers”>The Weird Logic of Paywall Challengers</a>.” He attempts to exhibit that the arguments used by those against paywalls are illogical. He also attempts to exhibit that paywalls are not only a excellent thought however a necessity for news websites.
<p>First, a small background. Some internet news sites are making human beings pay to view content. That’s called a paywall. You can’t view the content without paying. So far the attempts to implement paywalls have been complete failures. For example, when Newsday locate up a paywall, <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100126/1515217905.shtml” id=”r-8y” title=”only 35 human beings paid”>only 35 human beings paid</a>. After the Times instituted a paywall, <a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100719/11385610277.shtml” id=”t3kz” title=”its readership dropped by 2/3rds”>its readership dropped by 2/3rds</a>. And since those articles are not being indexed by Google (or Bing or Yahoo), they’re essentially invisible to human beings on the web.</p>
<p>
So what’s Maneker arguments in favor of paywalls? What errors in logic have those against paywalls made? Let’s go through his points.
</p>
<p>
His first mark is that much if <a href=”http://www.dailyfinance.com/tale/media/fresh-york-times-earnings-raise-inquiry-about-pay-plot/19564655/” id=”sd-w” title=”ad revenues are back”>ad revenues are back</a>, news outlets should diversify by charging anyway. He doesn’t seem to get this, however as I clarified above, paywalls kill off advertising by driving viewers and readers away. So Maneker’s argument that news outlets should diversify by relying on both advertising and paywalls fails as it is self contradictory. </p>
<p>His second mark is that news outlets charging “for content has always been part of its extended-term strategy.” He’s absolutely fair that newspapers have tended to charge for content. However, that was never done for profit. Profits always came from advertising, classifieds, and obituaries. </p>
<p>There were two reasons newspapers did charge. The first was to cover the costs of publishing. However, those costs no longer exist in the digital realm. </p>
<p>The second cause newspapers charged was to exhibit advertisers how many actual readers they had. If a newspaper publisher simply gave away its papers, it could claim that millions of human beings are reading when in circumstance no one is reading. Human beings paying for newspapers is a attractive excellent indication to advertisers that human beings are in circumstance reading. However in the digital realm news outlets do not demand paying customers to tell advertisers how many unique human beings are reading. All that data can be tracked automatically in absolute age. Heck, in the digital realm news outlets can give specific data about sheet views and what ads are working and what ads are not.</p>
<p>His third mark is that “central to any media strategy should be the thought of charging for some content.” Has he never listened to broadcast radio? Has he never watched broadcast TV? Has he never used Google, Facebook, or Twitter? And despite being contradicted by legitimate business models, his third argument is circular. He’s essentially arguing that news outlets should charge for content since they should charge for content. It only concludes its premise without telling us why.</p>
<p>Along with his third mark he pulls the following assertion outside of his ass, “Digital distribution should constitute content much cheaper–however it shouldn’t constitute it autonomous of charge.” Why shouldn’t it be autonomous of charge? He never clarifies.</p>
<p>Hundreds of years ago the most efficient method to distribute news was to print it on paper and deliver it locally. Times changed. Radio came along and made delivering news in absolute age more efficient. However it still lacked the newspaper’s depth. TV news had the same difficulty. However the internet does not. It has the efficiency, the immediacy, and the depth. Since the distribution costs are essentially zero, economically speaking, there is no cause why the cost of the content should not also be autonomous of charge.</p>
<p>If Maneker’s piece is any indication, the pro-paywallers’ dream of making us pay for news is a lost cause.</p><br /><br /><a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100723/17165010347.shtml”>Permalink</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100723/17165010347.shtml#comments”>Comments</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20100723/17165010347&op=sharethis”>Email This Tale</a><br />
<br clear=”both” style=”clear: both;”/>
<br clear=”both” style=”clear: both;”/>
<a href=”http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=1ccd3307706c74fb4d59a3d4c26b8c1e&p=1″><img alt=”" style=”border: 0;” border=”0″ src=”http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=1ccd3307706c74fb4d59a3d4c26b8c1e&p=1″/></a>
<img alt=”" height=”0″ width=”0″ border=”0″ style=”exhibit:none” src=”http://segment-pixel.invitemedia.com/pixel?code=TechBiz
&partnerID=167&key=segment”/><img alt=”" height=”0″ width=”0″ border=”0″ style=”exhibit:none” src=”http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-8bUhLiluj0fAw.gif?marks=pub.29198.rss.TechBiz
.8626,cat.TechBiz
.rss”/><div class=”feedflare”>
<a href=”http://feeds.techdirt.com/~ff/techdirt/feed?a=fgRCBRtrWt8:fqj_eq13aXM:D7DqB2pKExk”><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/techdirt/feed?i=fgRCBRtrWt8:fqj_eq13aXM:D7DqB2pKExk” border=”0″></img></a> <a href=”http://feeds.techdirt.com/~ff/techdirt/feed?a=fgRCBRtrWt8:fqj_eq13aXM:c-S6u7MTCTE”><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/techdirt/feed?d=c-S6u7MTCTE” border=”0″></img></a>
</div><img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/fgRCBRtrWt8″ height=”1″ width=”1″/> More information: PSP
Related posts:
- Who is Sending All This Spam – And Why? Who are the human beings sending spam and why do...
- Detroit News Anchor Realizes How Twitter Has Changed How He Engages With Viewers One of the key points we tried to hammer house...
- Verizon CEO Actually Recognizes That People Want To Cut The Cord While many in the TV business were recently <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100823/01204410723.shtml”>patting...
- Visiting Australia? Make Sure You Tell The Customs Officials About The Porn On Your Hard Drive We’ve discussed, a hardly any times, the issues with border...
- Mobile phone Petrol Switch Business – Business Plan Logic and Issues With Proformas Yesterday, I used to be going over troubles with accomplishing...