The Problem with Pay Walls
I am a consumer of news. I also link occasionally to news story that fit into a blog post I am writing. To me a pay wall can only be effective if it is a prison wall. As long as the information can get out, and it will, then it in the end it will be ineffective. If I pay for an article and then link to that in a blog post, I am linking to the post with the expectation that my readers will have access to the original article. So they can verify that what I am saying about the article is true. Once that door is open, then the wall has been breach and it is no longer effective. Which means only prison walls would work and no one likes to pay to go behind a prison wall.
Even if this problem could be solved, there is a second one that remains and that is news is not unique. The same news that is reported by the New York Times is also being reporting by other news outlets at the same time. There is no incentive for me to pay to see an article by the New York Times, when I can get the same information for a free. There are certain areas of a newspaper that might lend themselves to a pay wall such as the opinion section or a special report, which are unique to that specific newspaper. However to put a pay wall around a whole newspaper just doesn't make sense. It is at best a temporary solution to a long term problem.
Perhaps instead of making the consumer pay for just entering the newspapers domain, it would make more sense for them to enter free then offer them unique information or service which they would have to pay for. ESPN does this well, if I want to see a sports score, I can go to ESPN and it is right there along with its related article if any. However, if I want inside information or the Insider as its called I have to pay for it. To me this is the correct use of a pay wall, however I doubt this is what Rupert Murdoch is thinking. What do you think, would you be willing to pay for certain newspapers or magazines on line, if not then how do they make money?
Kim
I apologize for the reposting but for some reason when it first posted the fonts were not matching.
Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 22:34 
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