Comments for Clay Shirky

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by Sunday Reading « zunguzungu

Sunday Reading « zunguzungu — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:35:02 +0000

[...] Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users [...]

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by John Finkelde

John Finkelde — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:52:15 +0000

I am a huge fan of (Murdoch owned) The Australian newspaper. it has excellent journalism, balanced reporting & credibility.

I get the The Weekend edition home delivered & buy it sporadically during the week.

They have just introduced a paywall & I signed up for the free month but to be candid I won’t be paying for access after the free month.

The reason – I much prefer reading a paper newspaper than a digital one. Actually I only occasionally browse news web sites.

I am an enigma cos I totally prefer Kindle for all my book reading & love reading blogs!!

However when it comes to my newspaper I prefer a tactile experience – go figure! I reckon this does make it hard for the newspaper industry because committed readers like me have different tastes – that’s capitalism I guess!

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by Peter McKay

Peter McKay — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:41:52 +0000

This is simultaneously the best defense of paywalls and the best description of their limitations that I’ve ever read.

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by kevin B Parsons

kevin B Parsons — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:39:05 +0000

The Emperor’s New Clothes! Newspapers, for decades, have used bogus numbers to entice their advertisers: “2 million readers!” when actually, Iit was 2 million papers sold. With the Internet, they now track who reads what, and the possibilities of buying customers has shrunk considerably. In actuality, the buyers are the same, but the numbers look much worse for the traditional print media.

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by ROBIN HOOD

ROBIN HOOD — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:52:51 +0000

It’s easy to bypass thespec.com paywall. Simply wait until the page loads, then click the “X” icon (stop loading) in your browser two or three times. Each time you click a link, you can do the same thing, wait for it to load, then click stop a bunch of times. Pretty simple. I can’t believe that f#*%ing idiot Howard the Editor believes people are going to pay for the atrocious spelling errors made by his reporters. What a joke. The day that they make it so the stop button doesn’t allow you to bypass the paywall is the day I stop going to that site. The National Post and CTV are pretty good and you can use CH website for local news. Weird that the spec goes on so much about the poor and then restricts local news to them unless they pay $70+ a year. What a joke.

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by Kate McClare

Kate McClare — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:18:20 +0000

In their richest day, newspapers never directly made any money from the readers. Did your little 25 cents ever truly support a newspaper? Of course not — it was strictly the means with which the paper proved to advertisers that it had readers. Why are we continuing to obsess about whether readers should pay for content? Why not charge the aggregators?

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by David Bonnier

David Bonnier — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:10:51 +0000

@Clay/Jan 6 – There certainly is a lot of tweaking to be done to find the “right” paywall for each type of content (value-add general interest, niche, etc.). But to be frank, of the millions of uniques that visit NYTimes.com, very few are of real value to advertisers, at least in terms of demographics. It is those that subscribe that are of value (30-45 yr old affluent spenders with families). Per its recent quarterly results, when locking up its website, the NYTimes.com didn’t suffer any material decline in online ad revenue. However, it did finally manage to return its subscription revenue back onto a structural growth path. That’s pretty powerful—a first in many many years.

@sean power/Jan 6 – I promise you, it is actually much more easier/practical to read news in the bathroom on your smartphone or iPad!

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:10:02 +0000

Some interesting thoughts in this column. In a previous career, I worked as a senior editor at a large metropolitan daily. I can tell you that the money made from subscribers (in those days, more than 15 years ago) covered about 10% of the cost of producing the paper. Advertising paid the bills. I don’t know what the formula is now — perhaps different — but it’s surprised me that newspapers haven’t REDUCED the cost to consumers in order to maintain circulation. But there is also the environmental cost. I know that 15 years ago many readers objected to the “waste” of newsprint every day and I assume that feeling has only increased.

I am just over 50 years old now and I have virtually lost my interest in reading newspapers. In terms of transferring to an electronic delivery system, I have been TEMPTED by the NY Times but, honestly, I don’t want to spend any more time in front of my computer than I already do. I have an ipad & a kindle, so I can read elsewhere if I like, but for now at least I prefer to read books to newspapers.

If defence of newspapers, I can tell you that the COST of producing a good investigative news story or a well-written feature is enormous and I don’t blame the newspapers for trying to charge to survive. These types of reporting/writing efforts generally aren’t replicated anywhere on the web and it makes me sad that people genearlly don’t understand the value/cost of them.

That said, I agree that the amount of writing people find worth paying for is only a tiny subset of the writing that newspapers produce.

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by News and the Underpants Gnomes’ equation « Newsroom With A View

News and the Underpants Gnomes’ equation « Newsroom With A View — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:30:12 +0000

[...] morning I was reading Clay Shirky’s thoughts about the “leaky paywall” or threshold model for news sites, which lets visitors see a set number of free articles before requiring a payment for any [...]

Comment on Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users by EBRohde

EBRohde — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:21:54 +0000

I for see a time…if not already here…when the group of willing payees simply begins to dialog directly and internally amongst the members and the NYT becomes nothing more than a credible facilitator of acres to reliable information feeding the dialog. As a well positioned agent of trust it can facilitate meaningful dialog among those who care…and who presumably are better or best situated to impact meaningful social and cultural change or support the stays quo. The real question is whether this elite segment will see and attempt to leverage their inferior numbers but superior acess to meaningful truth into a plan of action against the majority of disengaged consumers of junk information. the future is built upon credibility and open facilitation of critical dialogs impacting our world, our lives and the lives of those who matter most to us. the NYT can continue to solidify it’s credibility but will face an onslaught of competing sources big and small new and old….and it’s reach can no longer produce the same barrier to entry into the market of ideas…the power to print is now severely marginalized by the web. Every purveyor of information must be an evangelist of truth and an apostle of mass dialog lest instead the engaged and connected who understand it’s disadvantages because of it’s inferior numbers, sets about the task of dominating and arranging a future that feeds controlled subject matter and restricts the discussion to it’s own self serving topics.