I just read that The Denver Post and The Detroit News, along with other MediaNews newspapers, will start charging for content on the Web. I am relieved that so many publishers have finally realized that they’re in the newspaper business, not the Internet business.
I suppose publishers now know how blacksmiths felt 100 years ago when they refused to assist automobile drivers who needed water for an overheated radiator or help repairing a bent axel. At the time, people saw a blacksmith as someone who could help with transportation needs – horses and buggies. Blacksmiths’ refusal to help people who drove Tin Lizzies did nothing whatsoever to save the horseshoe, horse and buggy business. What it did was prevent blacksmiths from foreseeing a more lucrative business in becoming auto-repair shops.
The fact is, people won’t pay much to access local news online. Our research shows that it’s neither compelling nor valuable enough for consumers to pay more than $1 per month. There’s just too much of it floating around, and it’s really not in that “gotta have it” information category. Charging actually makes sense, if you’re squarely in the “newspaper” business.
The toll-gating of local newspaper content, in my humble opinion, won’t mount to a hill of beans either way. It won’t increase print circulation, and it won’t bring new riches to newspapers. For publishers, however, it will indeed do one thing: It’ll relieve them of the burden of having to figure out how to transform their companies into more lucrative businesses.
