Is Rupert Murdoch a genius or a crazy man? The free vs paid debate.
Telegraph:
"Jonathan Miller, News Corp's chief digital officer, said the media mogul was ready to block Google's access to his sites soon and that the company would lead the media industry in this direction.
“There is real tension surrounding the free versus pay debate," Mr Miller told the Monaco Media Forum on Friday. "It will play out in the next two years. We believe that the value of high quality content is not recognised online [by giving its away for free) so something needs to happen.
“I don’t believe the media industry can continue to exist in this way.”
When asked how long it would be before Mr Murdoch took the step to block Google, which every media company relies upon to send them high levels of web traffic, Mr Miller said it would be soon – “months and quarters – not weeks”.
My questions to you: Do you think Rupert Murdoch is a genius or a crazy man? Should we pay for high quality content?
"Jonathan Miller, News Corp's chief digital officer, said the media mogul was ready to block Google's access to his sites soon and that the company would lead the media industry in this direction.
“There is real tension surrounding the free versus pay debate," Mr Miller told the Monaco Media Forum on Friday. "It will play out in the next two years. We believe that the value of high quality content is not recognised online [by giving its away for free) so something needs to happen.
“I don’t believe the media industry can continue to exist in this way.”
When asked how long it would be before Mr Murdoch took the step to block Google, which every media company relies upon to send them high levels of web traffic, Mr Miller said it would be soon – “months and quarters – not weeks”.
My questions to you: Do you think Rupert Murdoch is a genius or a crazy man? Should we pay for high quality content?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin on -
I would say that Murdoch is greedy instead. Also I don't believe that anything owned by News Corp provides high quality content.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Huckabee on -
He's a dinosaur. The meteor already hit and destroyed all the food he was gorging himself on and he's just to dumb to know it. Adapt or die.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Kie Murray II on -
lol, so true... so true.
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Permalink Reply by Johnny Blue on -
I would say he's crazy, but if does end going through with it, I would say he has some real balls to lead the way. Blocking google will inevitably lead to a loss of tons of traffic and advertising revenue, so there are great risks involved.
Will this business model work? I like to think it won't. There are too many free new sources out there these days. Why would we pay for them?
Here's a great interview of Rupert Murdoch regarding this subject:
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Permalink Reply by Speedo on -
Maybe he should shut down all his websites and go print to print editions only :D
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Permalink Reply by Gofaster on -
well, you can't keep getting something for free that costs something to make. It's been a blood bath at every newspaper for a while now and those outlets are folding left right and center.
Blocking google doesn't address that underlying issue. Right now, newspapers and their subscribers are subsidizing our free news and eventually the money will run out. The companies advertising on those papers are running to craigslist and google so subscribers aside, the money is not flowing in.
The question is, what will fill the void?
If you remember about 15 years ago or so CNN tried the same thing.. They tried charging for their content for a few months, everyone went this that and the other way so they stopped. and no Murdoch company is anywhere near a CNN.
Heck I get most of my news from the bbc or pbs these days anyways... news hour with jim lehrer, nightly business report and Charlie rose and bbc on sat. radio or streaming in its annoying 12 hour loop or whatever.
Honestly do you need 12,000 newspapers reporting the exact same article off of ap or reuters? I don't think so.
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Permalink Reply by Gofaster on
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wow, thats was like a response from school. I started writing and missed the question. as an added bonus I just noticed I put my sweatpants on backwards...
hmm...
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