Murdoch To Charge For Online News

Good luck with that.

Rupert Murdoch, "within the next year" plans to turn all of the online versions of his news holdings into "members only" pay sites. He is doing this because his Wall Street Journal online membership is booming, and thinks he can replicate that success elsewhere.

The problem (and you would think that a billionaire businessman would see this) is that Murdoch is confusing data with details. The Wall Street Journal is a primary source (in some cases, the only source) for financial DATA that people NEED... especially need to do their jobs and maintain their fortunes. No other place on the planet provides the in-depth financial analysis, nor provides the numbers — at least as concisely and completely — as the Wall Street Journal does.

News outlets, on the other hand, provide DETAILS. Everybody knows about the plane crash... and they turn to a news outlet to get DETAILS about that event. People DON'T NEED the details... it is just helpful to further their understanding. They certainly aren't going to pay to get those details, especially when their jobs and fortunes don't depend on it... and super-extraspecially when they can go to some other news outlet and get those same details for free.

And, lets face it, even if every single newspaper on the planet decided to charge people to visit their websites, you will still have all the blogs and chat rooms and boards and other websites that will still pass on the news for free.