A new online newspaper in Denver, to replace the now closed Rocky Mountain News, is off to a slow start.
Again they are, in my humble opinion, making a mistake giving people the online news for free with some fanciful idea that after a period of time they will then pull the switcheroo and get people to pay for what they have been getting for free.
Please note the difference in staffing for the old model and new model.
I know I'm a dinosaur, but I still can't see the model for an online newspaper that is going to start out free and then try and coax people into the pay model later.
But I'm willing to be wrong.
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Right, but do you actually think that a subscription-based online newspaper can survive in a market where there is currently another online newspaper that's free?
It won't. Only the very faithful readers will pay for the news when they can get it for free, and there won't be enough of those to pay the bills. At this point, I think you're better off trying to use advertising dollars to fund it, as minute as those will be.
I think we all agree that subscription based, or an iTunes method of purchasing, is the future of journalism online. The problem is that until all the papers that are giving the news away for free go out of business, there isn't a market for pay news online.
Jerry Nunn from the Bay City Times' True North section (might run in Flint too, I'm not sure) is in the process of starting up a subscription based site in Northern Michigan. Great idea, and I wish him success, but it won't work. His market is too big, and not enough people will pay to read his stuff.
Until you eliminate the freebies, no one will pay. Would iTunes be doing so well if Microsoft offered all music downloads legally for free? I doubt it.
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