simon varney (Rupert Murdoch)

In a hope to make money from online journalism, these proposed pay-walls would mean that after a certain amount of free articles read the user would be confronted with no other option but to pay for more content or leave the site.

This compromise has already happened with Google News, which until now allowed you to read all the news you liked from all sources without even leaving Google’s site. This of course frustrated Murdoch because that didn’t even allow him advertising revenue from his own online ventures. So now, you seen only 5 or so articles from a source, and then you must pay.

To be honest, I think this won’t affect either parties much at all. If anyone else is like me when I browse for news sources online, I usually end up viewing several different websites in one day, and rarely 5 or more from the same website. Things may be different for some people though, like if you prefer the style of one publication. If that is the case then I am sure they already have a subscription to that source.

This doesn’t take into account BBC News online either, which currently will always be a source of free online news. Most people assume information is free on the Internet, so I think something a lot more thought out than a pay-wall will be needed to convince the masses to pay for online news at this point.

If Murdoch’s views become a reality, then I think the biggest casualty will be the unique-ness of the Internet as a source of information. It would look more like the standard media industry looks now, just online, with the people with money deciding what goes.

@2 years ago with 1 note
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