Rupert Murdoch Doesn't Recognize That There's Competition Online
from the wow dept
People keep insisting that we're crazy to think that Rupert Murdoch is going down the wrong path with his paywall plans. I keep hearing from people saying "don't bet against Rupert -- he's the sharpest guy in the news business and he knows what he's doing." But I just can't see it. Not when he continues to say things that just aren't true. The latest, sent in by reader sinsi, involves yet another interview with Murdoch where he insists that once he puts up paywalls Google and Microsoft will be forced to stop linking to his stuff. Instead, he wants them to put up a subscription form:"We'll be very happy if they just publish our headline or a sentence or two and that's followed by a subscription form,"Ok, Rupert, how about you start? After all, we've pointed out that a ton of your own properties have news aggregators, and looking through them, not a single one appears to have subscription forms. Why not?
But, even more ridiculous, is his insistence that people will start paying:
"I think when they've got nowhere else to go they'll start paying,"Not if but when. Recent profiles of Murdoch have suggested he doesn't use the web, so perhaps he doesn't realize it, but there's always somewhere else to go, and if News Corp. is so short-sighted to lock itself away from the open web, well that just opens up a much greater opportunity for his competitors to make sure they're the place to go.
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Filed Under: paywalls, rupert murdoch
Companies: google, microsoft, news corp.
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Sharpest guy? or Stupidest guy? Last I checked, you have to do many researches to understand something. He's giving me the impression that he just pull some "insight" out of somewhere magically.
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I bet you also heard that the captain of the Titanic was the best captain on that ship and there's no way anything could go wrong...
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Gary North discusses the Newsosaurs
Came out yesterday. One of his key points: one man operating out of an apartment got a president impeached. The "New York Times" and the WSJ didn't.
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Re: Gary North discusses the Newsosaurs
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Finally!
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Well, I think he's actually correct on this point. Once he puts his stories behind a paywall, no one will be index those pages, so they'll no longer appear in search results. Basically, if Murdoch puts all of his site behind a paywall, they'll disappear completely from the net.
I occasionally blog over at Dvorak.org. There was some screw up a while back which caused the entire site to be pulled from Google. Not only did our numbers drop dramatically, it was fricken weird not being on Google. It was like we didn't exist for a day or two.
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the band continued to play as the ship sank ....
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Online, Murdoch is out of his depth. It is like watching Michael Jordan play baseball.
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He's currently selling information. That's fine and he's made a lot of money. Now there's competition. It used to be all news came from the newspaper. Then some from broadcast TV. Then some from 24 hour cable news channels. Then some people started going to the internet.
The internet is faster and more convenient for a lot of people. If he sits back and says, newspapers and TV is my business, he might be out of business soon. But it's his call. I've never made any money selling news, I just read a lot on the net.
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Please stop
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Re: Please stop
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Where are all the Rupert Fans now?
Where are all those "he is so smart because he has so much money.... why should he listen to techdirt" Where are you now? Oh yes this quote demonstrates how incredible aware of the interent and the online environment he has. How he masterfully will be the only game in town..... yup, where do I sign up.
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Put up or shut up
Well I'm gonna keep saying it "Put Up or Shut Up!"
I want him to stop threatening it, or bitching about it and just do it. If it's such a great idea, then what is he waiting for.
I'm just waiting for it to happen, then a bit later watch him backtrack like hell because he's loosing his customers when they don't want to pay for something they can get elsewhere without paying.
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Re: Put up or shut up
I would bet dollars to donuts that Murdoch has made some kind of internal proclamation like, "Gets mes a paywall. I want you IT idjuts to have one up by next week. AND IT BETTER NOT COST MORE THAN $13."
He (or one of his minions) is probably getting estimates around 6-8 months for a redesign with a cost of 1-3 million dollars and they think the IT group is bulls**ting them so they can buy new chairs.
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Dear rupert please take your marbles and go home
First I have to say the man is an idiot. I dont think there has ever been an advertisement on google news
MM - "but there's always somewhere else to go"
Not only is there always somewhere else to go, but the places to go are increasing at a slow but exponential rate. Going back to infinite resources and the Bell curve - Normal Distribution. Probabilities show that with the increase in the number of news sources Blogs, RSS feeds, online only papers, you have an increase in the number of good news sources that fall 2 plus sigmas out. Currently less than 10 percent of Rupert Murdocks "news" falls in this range. As time passes and the competition increases less and less of news corps news will fall into this 2 + sigma range, making them less relevent.
The news of old is one bucket of slop where all the news came from, the news now is evolving into being a couple million shot glasses each holding a different flavor. Targeted topic-interest blogs, RSS, and news will become more relevent as time passes. As more aggregation applications are developed they will server the individual consumer information that interests them.
This age of person specific news papers is here already. How many of us use RSS feeds on a daily basis. All thats needed is a killer app ...
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Paywalls are the way to go...
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very very simple
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Thank you Mr. Murdock for pointing out the problems with monopolies and megacorporations that control the flow of information.
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Another Delusional Dinosaur
I stopped my Wall Street Journal the moment he turned it into a rightwing tabloid and switched to Financial Times, so much better.
So I applaud this move by news corp, if anyone is gullible enough to believe the garbage they put out, then they should have to pay.
I consider it Retard-Tax.
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Which of the COUNTLESS verifiable facts that FOX news puts out each day are you refrencing when you talk of "garbage"?
Certainly, since I both read Foxnews.com and watch FOX mews (and countless other news sources), I do know that certain editorials, and news stories are angled with a conservative-slant. That being said, I LOL seriously when people like you "Brazil" try to slant all the news from these sources as "garbage". I guess that headline about "West Virginia mine where 25 people died was cited for violating federal safety measures on day of explosion" is garbage? No? How about this one "Colo. Judge Fired Over Teen Arrest for Overdue DVD" is that more FOX news made-up garbage? It's called news. It's also called fact. Learn to deal with it.
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Which of the COUNTLESS verifiable facts that FOX news puts out each day are you refrencing when you talk of "garbage"?
Certainly, since I both read Foxnews.com and watch FOX mews (and countless other news sources), I do know that certain editorials, and news stories are angled with a conservative-slant. That being said, I LOL seriously when people like you "Brazil" try to slant all the news from these sources as "garbage". I guess that headline about "West Virginia mine where 25 people died was cited for violating federal safety measures on day of explosion" is garbage? No? How about this one "Colo. Judge Fired Over Teen Arrest for Overdue DVD" is that more FOX news made-up garbage? It's called news. It's also called fact. Learn to deal with it.
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Build baby build!
Maybe he's is more interested in the publicity he gets from talking about a paywall than he is in actually building one.
Do it Rupert -- isolate your content, prove us wrong.
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I LoLed at that.
I don't know about others but me, if there are still blogs out there, I know I will get the news from all over the world, from people who actually live where the news is happening.
Sismic Waves(Comic about how fast news spreads on the internet)
http://xkcd.com/723/
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Murdoch must succeed with Pay Walls, here's why
Murdoch must succeed. Every journalist should take a subscription to The Times to show suppor and here's why:
I paid £2.39 for the Guardian app a couple of months ago. I use it daily. It is the best news app on the iPhone. Fact. I'm used to it and turn to it for everything from footie news to election coverage, daily.
Neither the free Independent or Telegraph app are as good. They don't have the columnists and I never get to the end of a Guardian story and think there's something missing or the job's not been done properly.
So, and I'm sure this is just around the corner, when the Guardian asks me to pay say 59p a month to keep it running, I'm in. Unless someone offers something better.
People are prepared to pay if they value the content. Advertisers will be desperate to be part of a valued news organisation and be associated. It's obvious: people still pay for newspapers don't they.
And if they aren't, then good journalism will end and we'll sink in recycled press releases.
And that won't happen, if it did, then someone would launch a paid quality news outlet on line again anyway. The arguably left-wing/pc/tolerant BBC isn’t to all tastes.
Things are already changing on the 'net, there's not the 'let's give it a go and see what happens mentality' out there any more. It is settling down and businesses are now recognising you can only give something (anything) away, provided that there is some commercial return that pays for the effort. The big boys have sampled it, got involved, and now they need to make it pay.
Yes the 'net is a level playing field and any Tom Dick or Harry can have their say - but no one cares really because they don't know who they are.
It's becoming clear the 'net is not going to be what the western world dictates anyway. Google, Microsoft et al thought they could dominate it. But they can't. China gives an indication of what the 'net could become.
To conclude, there's information everywhere, more than ever people need someone to gather information that interests them into one, simple to navigate, authorititive place. Millions of people already do that when they buy a newspaper.
Murdoch - and I surprise myself by saying it - may be recognised in years to come saviour of our trade through his recognition that the current situation is unsustainable. I'm 100 per cent behind him.
In fact, every journalist should take a subscription to show support.
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Re: Murdoch must succeed with Pay Walls, here's why
This part made me think so - "Murdoch - and I surprise myself by saying it - may be recognised in years to come saviour of our trade through his recognition that the current situation is unsustainable."
That was a bit over the top, but possibly you are serious - in that case - my condolences.
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Re: Murdoch must succeed with Pay Walls, here's why
Its called a loss leader, you give away something to make some money on something else. Look at craigsList they give away most advertising to make money off of other ads.
"Yes the 'net is a level playing field and any Tom Dick or Harry can have their say - but no one cares really because they don't know who they are. "
I dont know who you are and I dont care a lick about what you say.
"People are prepared to pay if they value the content."
Here is the thing that kills that idea. If people can get it for free they will choose free.
"To conclude, there's information everywhere, more than ever people need someone to gather information that interests them into one, simple to navigate, authorititive place."
You can do all this with an IE and RSS feeds or an rss aggregator. When the Killer app for this happens news papers will fail even faster than they are today.
Also if this comment is an example of your writing skills we are better off without you ...
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Re: Murdoch must succeed with Pay Walls, here's why
Not in my experience they don't. At home, I have 3 or 4 newspapers that keep delivering to my door for free. I actually wish they'd stop, because I don't read them and they just clutter up my yard two or three times a week.
No one I know buys a newspaper out of a machine or from a stand, or any other way. There's no need: better, more-targetted information is freely available online.
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Re: Murdoch must succeed with Pay Walls, here's why
Cool journalist supported news ... maybe you will get 200 subscriptions beating NewsDay by 165 subscriptions.
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not paywall but Content control can and will work
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