WSJ Editor: Those Who Believe Content Should Be Free Are Neanderthals
from the that,-or-people-who-understand-economics dept
Danny Sullivan has an excellent analysis of some of the more ridiculous statements from WSJ managing editor, Robert Thompson, trashing pretty much everything online. Most of Sullivan's analysis focuses on how ridiculous it is for Thompson to claim that Google makes news readers "promiscuous," so I won't address that again (though, you really should read Sullivan's writeup). Instead, I wanted to focus in one little bit that Sullivan mentions, but doesn't explore too much (other than to mention how insulting it is). Thompson declares that there are "three types of people" online, starting with:There are the net neanderthals who think everything should be free all the time.Pretty scary that someone who's the managing editor of the most well known and well-respected business newspaper out there thinks this, huh? First off, I don't know anyone who thinks "everything should be free all the time." People are more than willing to pay for scarce goods of value. Where they fundamentally have issues is with being charged for content that can be made free at no additional cost. And that's not "neanderthal" thinking, it's good old classic economics -- the kind we thought the WSJ supported.
And, of course, this also shows Thompson fundamentally not understanding the debate. For many, many years there's been plenty of "free content" in the terms of "free to the consumer" but which is supported in other ways. As Sullivan points out, News Corp., which owns the WSJ, also owns Fox -- which delivers free content, over the air, to consumers, but supported by advertising. Is that a Neanderthal opinion?
It really makes you wonder what they're thinking over at the WSJ or what sort of business smarts they have when they both consider Google to be a problem and think that basic economics on content pricing is "Neanderthal." It should call into question their thinking on other business topics as well. And, remember, this is the same company that is lashing out at "aggregators" like Google News, at the very same time that it's offering its own aggregator as well. If Thompson thinks Google News makes people promiscuous, why does his own site offer something similar?
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Filed Under: content, economics, free, robert thompson
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Those who believe society somehow owes them a monopoly on anything are selfish hedonists.
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But in the case of WSJ one would of course expect more. Using a strawman argument and not even being able to dismiss it with consistent arguments doesn't impress much.
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If I had a nickel...
I've always understood that the main factors limiting newspapers profits were high distribution costs and limited advertising space. Now, thanks to new technology, distribution costs are essentially zero and there is essentially unlimited advertising space, and yet everyone is complaining that the very same technology is somehow destroying the business?
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The current free wave is just that, a wave. Once it is gone, the question is what replaces it?
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You never know, there might be more than one rat in that apartment
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Take for example Thompsons comment:
By admitting they know how to make money in this environment, he is really just whining about reality here and saying everyone else should think like him which would allow him to over-charge for all his news.
Good luck with that.
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Some of us don't agree with throwing our hard eanred money down a bottomless pit. Especially when the returns on that money is little or nothing. Free has worked since before humanity even had currency and will work well after we are all dead.
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Furthermore, there may be people online that truly believe that everything should be free, and the WSJ should try harder to court the people that don't fall in that group while trying to sway the opinions of the "neanderthals".
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Every business relies on free. Every single one of them. Word of mouth is free. Advertisements are seen for free. Without free, no one would even know your product existed.
The only worthwhile debate about free is what should or shouldn't be free. Saying the free is flat-out bad...well, that's just plain stupid.
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So weird
I honestly do not see why they have such a big problem with Google. Is it that they just have such a huge misunderstanding of what Google is doing that they think Google is a threat that needs to be eliminated?
It's really hard to follow their rationale on this. It's actually pretty simple: Either enjoy the free advertising that Google gives you and shut up or block them and figure out how to monetize your content on your own.
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Insulting to Neanderthals....
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The only time that you will see them arguing against an establishment BM is when they are supporting a different establishment BM
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RE: I don't know anyone who
Mike, my name is Tom. Nice to meet you..
Now you do know someone who thinks everything should be free all the time..
-T
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Pig!
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Maligning Neanderthals
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quick question .....
http://online.wsj.com/robots.txt
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Meat Eaters...
Without fail; every time some group of mouth-breathing meat-eating violent semi-retarded club-wielding neanderthals comes into contact with one of these peaceful societies, said society ends up dying horrifically.
The Lesson?
Be a neanderthal.
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Re: Meat Eaters...
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What he does not understand is: so an I.
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The new enemy is fearsome
He is the Neanderthal Raporist, coming soon to a suburb near you.
How does a Neanderthal Raporist travel into previously innocent towns? On the back of ManBearPig, of course....
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Re: The new enemy is fearsome
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What you're paying for...
News is like water: it's ubiquitous and the cost is little. The problem is that delivering news on newspaper has a very limited appeal (unlike water). Water requires a manufactured and labor delivered system. News is electronically distributed at almost zero cost. Therefore, asking people to pay for news would be like asking people to pay $2.00 each time they metered 16oz of water into their own container. News isn't made more convenient by printing it on paper: it ages fast and is static.
Forget trying to charge people to re-pay for news that's already been paid for. Forget charging people to re-pay to have news delivered to them that they already paid an ISP to do. You can only charge people for tangible goods. Virtual goods is very hard to sell.
If you think news will disappear when publishers finally get this fact, wrong! The old school publishers will vanish and the new versions will thrive. I've already stopped getting paper media, I've stopped paying for cable entertainment, stopped paying for wired telephone and a litany of other old school communication methods. And when all the papers go away, I will barely notice.
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Look who has evolved and who is gonna be extinct.
So has he thought of all the options they have got? I can think of two, none of which are really promising for the types of WSJ managing editor or Murdoch.
1. Evolve to compete with the Neanderthals
2. Find a resting place and await your demise.
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Come back with a paywall
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Yawn
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It's The Neanderthals vs The Dinosaurs!
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for years
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Competition is good for the market, not businesses
If Google's news site is the consumer's home page, that means a paper's isn't.
Google's algorithm may not be weighted to favor anyone. The major papers don't want their prestige and perceived value replaced with an algorithm that puts them on the same footing as the small market papers.
Google fosters competition and is a catalyst for the winnowing of those who can't compete.
Competition makes businesses leaner and more efficient. The 'fat' that is eliminated doesn't like it.
Competition makes businesses stronger. Stronger means having to work harder and smarter. It makes the best talent more expensive.
Businesses hate competition.
It's not difficult to see why newspapers hate Google.
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Re: Competition is good for the market, not businesses
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Re: Competition is good for the market, not businesses
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re
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