Topic 1st for 17th of July - The Times online? That will cost you ￡1

[RVDOLPH]

The Times online? That will cost you ￡1

Rupert Murdoch is to charge users to access the Times and Sunday Times websites in a bid to reinvent the newspaper economy in the face of declining print readership and plummeting ad revenues.

From June, readers will be charged ￡1 per day or ￡2 for a week to access both papers' websites. Access will be included in the seven-day subscriptions of print customers to the Times and Sunday Times.

Murdoch has spent the best part of a year planning a strategy to erect paywalls, an issue that has polarised the UK newspaper industry, which recorded a fall of more than ￡700m in ad revenues last year as the recession took its toll.

Times Newspapers is losing ￡240,000 a day and Murdoch is willing to take a significant hit on its digital readership, about 20 million unique users a month, in the belief that a smaller, more valuable audience lies over the paywall.

"Clearly, we are going to lose a lot of passing traffic," said James Harding, the Times editor. "We have, like a few other national newspapers, tens of millions of unique [web] users a month. But they are not regular readers. They are more like window shoppers. Instead of just defending a dwindling band of existing readers, we're aiming to reach out to a world of people who want to get information and ideas but not from the printed page."

To date the only newspapers to have found some success charging for access to content online have been the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Both have targeted a niche, high-end business consumer. Murdoch's move will make the Times and Sunday Times the first UK papers to fully charge for digital content.

When Murdoch took over the WSJ's parent, Dow Jones, for $5.6bn in 2007 he flirted with the idea of taking down its paywall in favour of pursuing a purely ad-funded model online. However, the downturn crystallised a belief in the need to diversify revenue streams.

When Murdoch indicates a change in strategy, the media industry takes notice. The New York Times followed suit by announcing a hybrid "metered" online pay model timed to launch next year.

Yet despite Murdoch's often prescient moves in the market ? he surprised observers by latching on to social networking early and acquiring MySpace for a relative snip at $580m in 2005 ? there are many who believe charging online is impossible. The existence of the BBC and Google has made most content readily accessible.

News International's blueprint was announced a day after the Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev acquired the Independent and Independent on Sunday for a nominal ￡1. Lebedev has backed a free model for his existing acquisition, the London Evening Standard, in which he acquired a 75% stake from Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail & General Trust last year. Lebedev at least initially plans to keep the Independent titles paid-for, but has not ruled out the possibility of going free.

Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, said journalism was facing a defining moment. She said: "This is just the start," indicating that the Sun and News of the World would be next to get a pay barrier. "This is a crucial step towards making the business of news an economically exciting proposition."

Brooks has some justification for believing in what Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, termed a "global reset" of the market, which means ad levels will never recover to buoyant pre-recession levels.

For those pursuing a primarily ad-funded model, a report on Friday from the media group Carat indicated continuing tough times. Carat said that globally, every media type, including TV and radio, would return to advertising growth this year ? except newspapers and magazines

Referred to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/26/murdoch-times-website-paywall

Questions

1.    Do you think it is reasonable to charge for on-line media? If so, how much is it affordable?

2.    When reading, which media do you prefer paper or on-line?

3.    Do you read any English paper such as New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times?

4.    What is your favourite Korean paper?

5.    When reading paper, which section are you really interested in?

6.    How much do you trust Korean mass media?

7.    Can you recognise mass media manipulated the fact? Tell us any example.

8.    Recently, to choose news via Internet portal like Naver is common. Let’s talk about this trend.

[RVDOLPH]

10분 늦었군요, 죄송 :)

[Fox.Mulder]

Interesting topic... Wow. So many questions. good~~~~

[Ernesto Agustin Lee]

RVDOLPH 감사합니다. 토요일 날 뵈요~~~~~ ^^