Pay for online news content? Why Rupert Murdoch is a Desperate Man (or how the internet is making traditional media obsolete)

PART 1.
“Feisty”, “combative”, “shrewd”, “pugnacious”, “clever”.. All words I’d use to describe Rupert Murdoch the owner of News International, Sky TV, The Times, the Sun and more. But I’d never have described him as “desperate”.. until this week.

This week Murdoch launched an attack on online journalistic thieves who steal the stories of his “expensive and distinguished journalists” who he says invest “days, weeks or even months in their stories”.

Murdoch brands these parasitic vultures “aggregators”

“They are feeding off the investment of others” Murdoch told the Federal Trade Commission’s Workshop aptly titled; How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age? “To be impolite” he stormed, “its theft”.

The attack is prompted by a growing crisis facing all traditional media (newspapers, TV, radio etc). Sales are declining; advertising revenue is migrating to Google and other online platforms. News International has lost $3.4bn this year.

So who are these evil “aggregators”? Murdoch doesn’t make this clear. He could be referring to so-called “News Aggregation Websites” (i.e. search engines such as Google) which trawl the internet and find news stories.

But Murdoch says that these aggregators often “rewrite – at times without attribution” news published by his newspapers. So it seems he’s really referring to the millions of citizen journalists and bloggers (i.e. ordinary people) who publish information every minute of the day around the world.

So what’s the solution? Murdoch proposes a new business model in which, “We will be charging consumers for the news we provide on our Internet sites”.
So will it work?

Murdoch thinks it will, but I think it won’t. I think it’s desperation.
The problem is that the internet has fundamentally changed the rules of the game.
The internet allows everyone to talk to everyone else. The internet has democratised the way we communicate with each other.

In theory the growth of the internet, social networking, online video and the rest, appears to completely remove the need for newspapers, TV and radio news. The internet theoretically makes traditional media obsolete.

For example, someone can write a blog or Twitter or post online their thoughts or feelings about anything. And thanks to the power of search engines (the evil “aggregators”) anyone else on the planet can find what they’re saying, respond to it, tell their friends about it, agree with it, disagree with it, criticise it etc.
This has never been possible before and it’s revolutionary.

In the past we’ve depended on traditional media to tell us what’s going on and comment on it for us.

The traditional news model works like this:

1. Something of interest happens. Usually very few people know about it. These people are the “source” of the story.
2. The source alerts the media. They may call a press conference or issue a press release.
3. The media cover the story, publish it, broadcast it, embellish it, comment on it, analyse it etc.
4. The public “consume” the news, read it, watch it etc.

The process was generally “one way”, with little chance for consumers to respond or get involved themselves.

Here’s an example.

1. On February 6th 1952 King George VI died at Sandringham. This was known by the Royal Household (the source).
2. The source issued a statement; “It was announced from Sandringham at 10.45 a.m. today, February 6, 1952, that the King, who retired to rest last night in his usual health, passed peacefully away in his sleep early this morning”.
3. The media covered the story; The BBC interrupted its programmes at 11.16, read the official communiqué and cancelled its programmes for the remainder of the day. The newspapers rushed out special editions.
4. The public consumed the news.

The new model works like this.

1. Something of interest happens. Usually very few people know about it. These people are the “source” of the story.
2. The source publishes the information the internet.
3. The public consume the news, spread it, comment on it, Tweet it, blog it, comment on it, analyse it etc.

In the new model, the role of the traditional media has disappeared.
Here’s an example.

1. On June 25th 2009 at 12.21 local time, paramedics found Michael Jackson collapsed at his home. Within minutes this of the discovery, the news became known by the American entertainment website TMZ.com (the source).
2. TMZ published the news immediately.
3. There was a vast spike in online activity as news was spread by ordinary people. A quarter of all Tweets were about Michael Jackson. Google thought it was under attack by cyber terrorists because of the volume of searches. Vigils were organised by fans, tribute videos were posted to YouTube and Facebook. The traditional media, bewildered by the speed of events desperately played catch up.

And that’s why News International lost $3.4bn last year. Because the internet is making traditional news media obsolete.

So will Murdoch’s solution work? Or is it simply desperation?

(Continued in Part 2).

Graham Majin is a former BBC News Producer. He is currently Head of Video Marketing and Video Production at Kent based Kersh Media and KWIKVID www.kershmedia.co.uk and www.kwikvid.com