Newspapers online have always struggled with a consistent business model. There have been registration walls, paid content behind walls (including columnists and archives), and various ad schemes from paid search ads to classifieds to interstitial ads that bar entry. Many of the paid content ideas have fallen aside lately, with the boom in online advertising. NYTimes.com dropped its not-so-popular TimesSelect pay wall for its op-ed columnists, and Rupert Murdoch is leaning toward tearing down the Wall Street Journal Online's paid wall as well. So the question remains: If online newspapers decide to rev up advertising, what happens if there's a cyclical downturn in ads? What revenues do they rely on? What content would you pay for on a newspaper site? Older archives? Specialized news alerts? Customized feeds? Nothing? Share your thoughts in the comments below and I'll publish the best ones in a future Your Take Roundup.
What content would you pay for (if any) on a newspaper site?
by Mark Glaser, September 21, 2007
Multimedia
Newsletters
MediaShift delivers the best news on media and technology directly to your in-box.
Best of MediaShift
By This Author
-
Mediatwits #49: Facebook IPO Mania; Internet Week; 16th Webby Awards
Welcome to the 49th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, with Mark Glaser and Dorian Benkoil as co-hosts. Today is the day for the Facebook IPO, so we've got it covered like a wet blanket. Special guests Debra Aho Williamson of eMarketer and Troy Young of SAY Media talk over the ins and outs of Facebook as it soars into the...
-
Mediatwits #48: Yahoo CEO Under Fire; Pros and Cons of Metered Pay Walls
Welcome to the 48th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, with Mark Glaser and the Rafat Ali as co-hosts. On this show, we turn to the chaotic soap opera that continues at Yahoo, once an Internet darling on its umpteenth remake. Its new CEO Scott Thompson appears to have padded his bio with a computer science degree that he never received....
-
Mediatwits #47: Positively Dan Rather; Future of Facebook; Rise of Snip.it
Welcome to the 47th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, this time with Mark Glaser and the Rafat Ali as co-hosts. On this show, Rafat had the honor (and early-morning wakeup call) to interview news icon Dan Rather at 7 a.m. while Rather was traveling by train to Washington, D.C. Rather has a new memoir out, "Rather Outspoken," and talked to...
Stay Informed
News Feed »
Follow us on Twitter »Who We Are
MediaShift tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.
Reader Poll