journalism economics

The sites News International hopes will persuade readers of the Times and Sunday Times to pay for online journalism were launched this morning. Take a close look.  They are free to view for the first month, but will retreat behind a paywall after we've all had a good chance to sample the wares. Will the experiment generate revenue to pay for journalism? John Witherow, editor of the Sunday Times, has predicted that his title will lose 90% of its online readership. But he hopes that losing a vast number of uncommitted readers will be more than compensated for by the 10% who truly appreciate good journalism. James Harding, Editor of  the Times, explained the argument on Today. The world of journalism is watching to see if this will work. Optimism is not widespread, but many people who do not believe paywalls can pay hope they will be proved wrong.   

 Is Press + a model for the way we will pay for professional journalism in future? I have predicted the emergence of online news agents using micro-payments  as a way to monetise online journalism. This version looks interesting. I imagine others will emerge. The market will provide, eventually.  

The Independent asked me to contemplate the future of professional journalism. I believe it is time for liberals to fight the deluge of poorly disguised ideology that threatens to drown our industry in pessimism. So, here is what I had to say...Of course, we still need to identify those new economic models, but nobody said it would be easy.  

Perhaps it is the sunshine, or the abnormal atmosphere of peace and contemplation currently pervading the Centre, but I was greatly cheered by this post on the Poynter Institute website. A few people in a handful of places in one advanced nation seem to be waking up to the idea that democracy needs journalism like a bird needs feathers. Let's hope the idea can cross the Atlantic in the opposite direction to the Mayflower, and ideally a little faster.   

The Independent asked me to think about the impact of recession on free newspapers. You can read my thoughts here. The excellent website about the free newspaper industry, to which I refer in the piece, is available here. It is worth noting that, 24 hours before the piece was published but sadly after the copy deadline, Kent on Sunday appeared in shops with a cover price of 90p. It was previously free but has now adopted a mixed paid/free model whereby some copies will be delivered free to homes but copies in shops must be paid for.