And They Wonder Why People Don't Like Newspapers Anymore?
from the stop-the-presses,-no-really dept
If you wanted to point out all the things newspapers have gotten wrong in the age of the internet, you wouldn't have to look too far. Newspapers have pretty much across the board, been bereft of good ideas on how to compete, whether it's in the stories they cover and how they cover them, or in the classifieds. But the online edition of today's Austin American-Statesman business section takes the cake in ineptitude: republishing ten stories that range from a few months to a few years old, noting that they are in fact being republished, but never explaining why. Perhaps it's a ploy to drive print edition sales -- I was assuming something was missing, so I went and picked up a printed copy. In the four-page section (which featured all wire stories -- guess somebody didn't want to work Sunday night), none of the old stories appear, so of course there's no mention of why they've shown up online. Is reprinting old stories just the latest cost-cutting exercise? Or is putting them up without any context or explanation another misguided attempt to make use of the web? Given the Statesman's fascination with stupid registration schemes and pop-unders and other annoying ad formats, I'll bet on the latter. Oh, and by the way, you'll of course need BugMeNot to read those articles, and they'll go behind a paywall (again) in a week.
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Bug Me Not, Not
I don't use BugMeNot. When I hit a registration link for an online news source, I find the "contact us" link and I leave this comment:
"I don't read news I have to register for. If you want to increase traffic, remove your registration.
"Sincerely MjM"
MjM
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Austin Resident Comment
I fore one am suprised by this submission/article, as Austin has much to boast and report. e.g. Samsung just announced they have chosen Austin for a 2nd plant.
c'est la vie
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Re: it's all free
I worry about newspapers being phased out because who's going to pay reporters to dig up the next big government scandal? I don't see bloggers putting down their coffee cups and getting in their 1980 VW to arrive at the White House, with no credentials, and grill the President on anything.
In the end, nothing is really "free".
Except my opininion, and that is worth every penny you paid.....
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Re: Re: it's all free
Like the other comment, if you try to hold on to OLD business models, then you deserve to STARVE. And that's the bottom line, end of story, no responses needed.
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Google News
I have noticed lately that Google News is serving cloaked results..
Want proof?
Click here
http://news.google.com/news?client=opera&rls=en&q=telecommunications%20alaska&sourceid =opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&sa=N&tab=wn
And then click on the WSJ story titled 'Out of the Telechasm'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114531696529928112.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
They made a promise to not cloak a couple of years ago.. It looks like it has now changed..? Is this old news?
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It's fun to watch...
Businesses that do not understand Internet culture deserve to lose money. It's a sign that they are behind the times and in a capitalistic society, that means certain death.
Subscription content is as passé' as last years fashions. There are so many free services (like TechDirt) that offer up-to-date interactive content, that, I believe, you'll see a steady decline in businesses offering subscription content. Obviously this doesn't apply to niche markets.
Finally, just a quick shot at Angie's comment;
Reporters epitomized the term freelance in American culture and as long as I can remember they've been hungry (Which mostly applies to their drive).
That means to me they understood the spirit and culture of free enterprise well before the Internet came into being and therefore have all the tools necessary to be successful using the Internet as a media platform.
Those who don't make it were mediocre to begin with and have/had no business in the industry anyways.
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How to compete
http://blog-o-blog.com/28/02/2007/on-dinosaurs-in-ivory-towers/
Mostly I consider the general news model to be a poor business model.
I don't think newspapers should try to compete through poor news decisions (a la britney spears on A1), I think they should compete through diversified news products.
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