My parents use the internet and subscribe to the local newspaper, because they prefer reading the newspaper in that form. It probably costs like 15 cents a day, which is less than a bubble gum.
Newspapers make much more from a print ad than the same online ad, as print ads get more brain/eye attention from readers and advertisers know this. Even if the online version has tons of traffic, that often doesn't translate to lots of money. If your local newspaper has a print circulation of 50,000 and multiple more online readers, it still makes more money from print ads than the online. Shifting all the readers from print to online, won't solve their financial woes. The one positive, and perhaps a positive for the future, is many local newspapers have a substantially larger overall readership than before due to their online sites. Dwindling readership is not the problem.
Originally newspapers the world over made the mistake of having their content unabridged and for free online, thinking that the online traffic would translate to print-like advertising money. Before long they realized the online ad-biz wasn't terribly lucrative, but the genie had been let out of the bottle-- computers users had been taught that you get your news for free online.
One of my favorite free content stories is NetZero. They started a free for life email service and planned on make a profit from ads. The president of Earthlink, which has always charged for the service, said it couldn't be done-- an email service company couldn't make a profit from just ads. Zoom a few years ahead in time, and you'll see that, despite its name, NetZero now charges a monthly fee for its email service.
Last edited by drc; 10-16-2009 at 02:19 AM.
|