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WSJ' Hiring For New Paid Site

Wall Street Journal chief Rupert Murdoch wasn't kidding when he said that his properties would start charging for all online content. The WSJ has placed at least three different ads seeking executive-level editors for "a new business Web site...that will break ground in the paid-content arena."

The question is whether this paid-content strategy will help News Corp. and other struggling publishers recapture revenue and profits, or whether it's an ill-conceived and anachronistic approach.

It is disingenuous to claim that readers of hard copies pay for content. What readers pay for is the convenience of delivery to their homes or the newsstand and the cost of paper and ink for each individual paper. Advertisers pay for the content -- and always have. Readers shouldn't have to pay for online content because there's no incremental additional cost associated with their usage of that content - they know that their individual copy of the online paper doesn't cost the publisher an extra cent to produce.

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