Understanding The Paywall Mindset In 140 Characters
from the concise-brilliance dept
We've been arguing for a while -- often in great detail -- that a newspaper paywall doesn't give anyone a reason to buy. There's no added value and the competition is massive. Just setting up a paywall doesn't mean that people will suddenly rush to give you money. But, for all the long essays on the subject, I don't think the concept could be summed up any better than Jay Rosen's short twitter message simplifying the issue:Journalist: hey, I made a snowman.It's not how nice the content is. It's not how long it took or even how much money it cost. It's understanding the basics of how a market functions. Demanding money without providing additional scarce value, in a market where the competition is plentiful and free is as much of a non-starter as the journalist's demands in the tweet.
Inuit: nice!
Journalist: it took me all day.
Inuit: what's your point?
Journalist: that'll be five bucks.
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Filed Under: jay rosen, journalism, paywalls
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Also photographers
Inuit: can I have some money?
Photographer: no. I can photo you for free
Inuit: can I copy your photo then?
Photographer: that'll be five bucks.
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Re: Also photographers
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Re: Also photographers
Inuit: Sweet, can I have my cut?
Label Exec: No, that's our money.
Inuit: Well I'll just download the songs for myself.
Label Exec: That'll be 1,920,000 bucks.
I smell a new meme brewing...
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The basic point is that people will not pay for something they can get for free elsewhere.
Photography is different in that you have created a unique image that cannot necesarily be replicated elsewhere and certainly not for free. There are too many people offering the same stories for nothing, in the same format.
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Yes it's nice to scoop, but if you are the only one reporting on it, it hardly seems newsworthy.
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I guess the problem is that newspapers and mainstream media provides bloggers with content by fabricating so much inaccurate nonsense ( http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090903/1323116097.shtml ) that bloggers can spend an entire eternity correcting all the fabricated nonsense that newspapers make up. This is good content, correcting all the made up news that newspapers make up just so they can have something to talk about, fake news that no one would otherwise blog about because it doesn't really exist, so there really is nothing to talk about, outside the imagination of newspapers. But yeah, newspapers make up news and that gives us something to talk about, correcting the fabricated news.
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I think the Onion is doing great.
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Oooooh, a zero-sum person! I've heard about you guys, I've just never met anyone stupid enough to actually BELIEVE in the zero-sum thing. Who cares if blogs as a whole are more popular? The game here isn't taking readership away from the papers. In fact, in many cases, blogs are directing traffic TO the papers.
"for the simple reason that bloggers are (mostly) unknown wannabes that copy/paste articles from online papers"
Well, in the rare occasions that they are copying and pasting some SNIPPETS from the articles, and usually linking back to them btw, you forgot to point out that they are then spending half a page correcting all of the innaccuracies within.
"Rarely is there a blogger with factual exclusive content about something interesting."
Absolutely true. Now replace the word "blogger" with "newspaper" and tell me if there is any difference. Go ahead, I'll wait....
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Go ahead I'll Wait.
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This is exactly why I visit blogs, because mainstream media is so darn inaccurate and one sided and bias (ie: with pro intellectual property nonsense) that I go to blogs for correctness and balance. If mainstream media was more accurate and balanced I wouldn't need blogs so much. But as of now everyone pretty much knows that mainstream media is nothing but a sad joke.
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And that's what the corporate owned newsmedia doesn't understand: it's not tha we don't NEED them, we don't WANT them.
For years and years and years, corporate owned media has modeled itself as some kind of watchdog agency. Nevermind the fact that ABC News refused to run stories about sexual harrasment lawsuits at Disney Land (ABC is owned by Disney). Forget the fact that you can't FIND a mainstream report on the Bilderburger meetings (attended by such esteemed watchdog newsmen as Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, etc.). Forget the fact that major news outlets have become mere conduits for the "official" line, from WMDs in Iraq, to the alliance to elect our first American President, to the odd choice of words used to describe the citizens of Iraq, that choice depending entirely on the day of the week and the goal of the citizen.
I mean, for a long time the duplicitous doublespeak coming from "reporters" was discussed around dinner tables, because there were no other choices and no major public outlets in which to hold these idiots feet to the fire. I remember sitting around my family dinner table and/or television and listening to my parents, who were politically informed and active, rail against the sensatinalism and innaccuracies reported on the "news".
Sorry guys, those days are over. I don't need you to tell me what is going on in Iran. Why? Because I can get the story from a bunch of people who are THERE, who are EXPERIENCING what you would only be able to REPORT on.
Good fucking riddance, you mouthpiece cowards....
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Re: Oh the fallacies. Let's examine shall we?
I'm pretty sure that's not Mike's goal. Unless this whole techdirt thing is some pseudo-80's-high-school-movie scheme to win prom king. Mike's point is to discuss the irrationality of paywalls. He seems to be doing a pretty good job, whereas you seem intent on getting into a popularity match.
"for the simple reason that bloggers are (mostly) unknown wannabes"
And journalists are all superstars? I can name maybe 0.1% of North American journalists, most people it's probably the same.
"that copy/paste articles from online papers"
We've seen plenty of instances of journalists regurgitating unchecked nonsense, adding little no value, and often result in propagating lies. That sword cuts both ways.
"Rarely is there a blogger with factual exclusive content about something interesting."
Really? Are you sure? My experience is that "scoops" come from journalists and bloggers alike. Unless you care to back this up?
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090823/1712315969.shtml
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-- not the goal of Techdirt, if it happens it is as a result of reporting on their own actions;
"will not make bloggers more popular"
-- not the goal of Techdirt. Is it the goal of newspapers to make themselves more popular by dissing on blogs...wait it actually is! Hypocrite;
"for the simple reason that bloggers are (mostly) unknown wannabes"
-- true, but still entirely irrelevant. Some are quite popular, most are not. The number of popular bloggers probably is in the same ballpark as the number of known, popular columnists, but once again, so what?;
"that copy/paste articles from online papers"
-- a broad, sweeping accusation which deliberaely omits the fact that good bloggers add some value even when they paste, moreover most good bloggers write as much fresh material in their articles as pro reporters, and any that just copy/paste have no audience and aren't really bloggers;
"Rarely is there a blogger with factual exclusive content about something interesting."
-- patently incorrect. As a percentage, most blogging is not "a scoop", but the volume of blog content is quite high, so there actually IS freqently "a blogger with factual exclusive content about something interesting";
I'll look forward to reading more of your work at your "Completely Wrong On Every Point Blog".
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090904/1203456111.shtml
and yet another example.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090904/0416086107.shtml
NY Post and NY Daily seem to even have a policy not to give credit to bloggers when stealing their stories, yet they get mad at bloggers by claiming that they parasite off of them and that they steal their stories when bloggers are far more likely to give credit when they write their stories (especially since bloggers don't tend to have a policy of not giving credit), though bloggers often use mainstream media stories just for the purpose of correcting their inaccuracies.
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A good paywall CAN add value
This is why Amazon is a better shopping experience for me than just any old place that happens to sell the same thing for the same price.
Many people do not know (and may not care) whether google search results are better because google have a better algorithm or because they are personalised using the users previous search history. It just needs to be better.
If I (say) like the liberal bias on Huff Post then they are adding value for me by bringing together all the stuff I might like to read.
The crowdsourced ratings system would basically ask the question "was reading that story worth the 2.3 minutes of your time that it took to read it." not "was it worth the $0.001 you paid". After all, even at minimum wage a minute is worth $0.10. People must place SOME value on not having their time wasted.
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Re: A good paywall CAN add value
There aren't many different systems.
" or else they agree to a common interface which all news stories publish to.
Yeah, that's not going to happen.
A "crowdsourced rating system" is not sufficient value to merit a paywall, Digg, and many others, do it for free. It is by no means scarce, either.
And if major news sites implemented that, someone else would come along and offer it... FOR FREE. Paywall sites fall down, go boom. Big boom. Big bada boom.
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LOL
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Try selling premium pork sausages in Tel Aviv. No matter how scrumptious the sausage, you've misread the market and this is exactly what the paywall crowd have done. No doubt there is a niche market for pork sausage in Tel Aviv, but expecting your local rabii to chow down on your product - even if it is a really #ucking good sausage is unrealistic and misguided.
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I can't tell you how hard that made me laugh...
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"Well, we'd have to be talkin' about one charming motherfucking pig. I mean, he'd have to be ten times more charming than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I'm saying?"
Personality goes a long way.
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Re: Competition
If I'm in a market at a stall, selling beads for $0.10 each, and someone else in the market is selling them for $0.05 each, I will have very poor business.
If news sites put up paywalls, and other sites (blogs, aggregators, new news startups) offer news for free, no one will pay.
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Inuits in Barbados
Now compare to a breaking story in North Korea. A news organisation will need to have made a considerable effort to get people on the ground or in a position to report the news in the first place. These people will need to be supported by technology and infrastructure that allow the story to be reported.
The business of collecting the news carries a cost that needs to be paid for. A paywall is one method of meeting these costs. It's not great but we should recognise that news costs money. There are alternative methods of paying for the news which have commonly included advertising. In the current climate, advertising revenue has dried up and options like paywalls are considered.
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Re: Inuits in Barbados
You newspaper guys keep saying that!
And we keep pointing out that this is THE big error in thinking.
And you keep thinking it's just because we want everything for free.
And we keep saying no, but you DO have to give us a reason to want to buy.
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Re: Inuits in Barbados
The traditional method of collecting the news costs money. No one is arguing that point. The question is how it should be paid for. Yes, a paywall is a model for trying to recoup these costs. However, the point that Mike is making is that it's a model doomed to failure. While a paywall may allow you to make some money in the short term, given the availability of news from other sources, in the long term, you just end up shrinking your audience.
In short, if you build a paywall, it means that eventually you'll be the only person inside the wall.
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Re: Inuits in Barbados
See, that's the really nice snowman. While you guys are setting up your fancy technology and infrastructure, I'll just read Twitter.
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Dead On
It's an entire industry whose leaders are in denial. These are the death throes.
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lol I download everything for free if I like it I buy it on vinyl. My record collection can attest to that (and my bank account)
I buy more media for things I can get for free.
http://www.quoteunquoterecords.com/
ask them if people pay for what they can get for free...since its all "free"
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Who, other than hungry hobo's collects news articles?
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Re: Different products
Would you pay for digital music?
The vinyl is both scarce, and has additional value to you, hence you pay.
Vinyl is scarce, but has no additional value to me, evidenced by the fact that I own no vinyl.
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Idiocracy
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I Pay For Delivery - ONLY!!!
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